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en-usFri, 18 Aug 2017 01:42:47 -0400Fri, 18 Aug 2017 01:42:47 -0400The latest news on Live Science from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/oldest-reproduction-discovered-in-fern-like-creatures-2015-8565-million-year-old fossils are unlocking the mysteries of the earliest reproduction strategies in historyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/oldest-reproduction-discovered-in-fern-like-creatures-2015-8
Tue, 04 Aug 2015 08:43:07 -0400Laura Geggel
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/55c0b2312acae717448ba43f-800-568/rangeomorphs.jpg" alt="rangeomorphs" data-mce-source="C. G. Kenchington" data-mce-caption="This illustration shows a Fractofusus community with clusters that arose from runners sent by the older generation." /></p><p>A soft-bodied, fernlike creature reproduced in Earth's ancient oceans about 565 million years ago, making it the earliest known example of procreation in a complex organism, a new study finds.</p>
<p>Many scientists consider the creatures, called rangeomorphs, some of Earth's first complex animals, although it's<a href="http://www.livescience.com/12883-plant-animal-mysterious-fossils-defy-classification.html">impossible to know exactly what these organisms were</a>, the researchers said.</p>
<p>The creatures prospered in the ocean during the late Ediacaran period, between 580 million and 541 million years ago, just before the Cambrian era. Rangeomorphs could grow up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length, but most were about 4 inches (10 centimeters) long.</p>
<p>What's more, rangeomorphs don't appear to have been equipped with mouths, organs or the ability to move around, and the animals likely absorbed nutrients from the water, the researchers said.</p>
<p>However, these ancient organisms had an unusually complex reproductive strategy for their time: They likely sent out an "advance party" to settle a new neighborhood, and then colonized the new area, the researchers said. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/21296-ancient-nursery-fossil-animals.html">See Photos of Ancient 'Baby' Rangeomorphs Preserved in Ash</a>]</p>
<p>The findings may help scientists understand the origins of modern marine life, they said.</p>
<p>"Rangeomorphs don't look like anything else in the fossil record, which is why they're such a mystery," study lead author Emily Mitchell, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Cambridge's department of earth sciences, <a href="http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/earliest-evidence-of-reproduction-in-a-complex-organism">said in a statement</a>. "But we've developed a whole new way of looking at them, which has helped us understand them a lot better &mdash; most interestingly, how they reproduced."</p>
<p>Mitchell and her colleagues looked at fossils of a rangeomorph known as a Fractofusus found in Newfoundland, in southeastern Canada. Like other rangeomorphs, Fractofusus was immobile, and so its fossils capture exactly where the creatures lived in relation to one another during the Ediacaran period.</p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55c0b2762acae78b0e8bca75-801-600/fractofusus-closeup.jpg" alt="Fractofusus CloseUp" data-mce-source="E.G. Mitchell" data-mce-caption="A close-up photo of Fractofusus fossils." />Using a combination of statistical techniques, high-resolution GPS and computer modeling, the researchers found an intriguing pattern in the distribution of Fractofusus populations.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.livescience.com/4795-advanced-life-created-ancient-explosions.html">larger Fractofusus</a>, or "grandparent" specimens, were randomly distributed around the environment, surrounded by distinctive populations of smaller "parent" and "children" Fractofusus, the researchers said.</p>
<p>These patterns of grandparent, parent and children Fractofusus are similar to biological clustering seen in modern plants, the researchers said. In fact, it's likely the creatures had two reproductive methods: The grandparents were likely born from ejected waterborne seeds or spores, whereas the parents and children likely grew from "runners," sent by the older generation, just as <a href="http://www.livescience.com/7613-origin-sex-pinned.html">strawberry plants</a> grow today.</p>
<p>The "generational" clustering suggests that Fractofusus reproduced asexually using runners called stolons. However, it's unclear whether the waterborne seeds or spores were sexual or asexual in nature, the researchers said.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55c0b2a92acae7a6098bca0e-801-600/fossil-gps.jpg" alt="Fossil GPS" data-mce-source="E.G. Mitchell" data-mce-caption="The researchers used GPS at a fossil bed in Newfoundland, Canada, to help solve the mystery of how Fractofusus reproduced." />"Reproduction in this way made rangeomorphs highly successful, since they could both colonize new areas and rapidly spread once they got there," said Mitchell. "The capacity of these organisms to switch between two distinct modes of reproduction shows just how sophisticated their underlying biology was, which is remarkable at a point in time when most other forms of life were incredibly simple."</p>
<p>However, Fractofusus isn&rsquo;t the only organism with complex reproductive strategies reproducing during that time. A 565-million-year-old tubular invertebrate named Funisia dorothea also lived in clusters, reports a 2008 study in the<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/319/5870/1660">journal Science</a>.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s possible that Funisia sent eggs and sperm into the water, a technique called spatfall that is still used by modern coral and sponges. Funisia may have also grown by using an assexual technique called budding, in which a new individual break off from the parent organism, the 2008 study found.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.livescience.com/47294-primitive-frondlike-fossils-reconstructed.html">Rangeomorphs disappeared from the fossil record</a> at the beginning of the Cambrian period, about 540 million years ago, making it difficult to link them to modern organisms, the researchers said. But this type of spatial analysis may help reconstruct the reproductive strategies used by other Ediacaran organisms, and help scientists understand how the organisms interacted with each other as well as their environments, the researchers said.</p>
<p>The study was published online today (Aug. 3) <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14646.html">in the journal Nature</a>.</p>
<p><em>Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/laurageggel">@LauraGeggel</a>. Follow Live Science <a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience">@livescience</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience">Facebook</a> &amp; <a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts">Google+</a>. Original article on <a href="http://www.livescience.com/51725-earliest-known-complex-reproduction.html">Live Science</a>.</em></p>
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<p><em>Copyright 2015 <a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a>, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</em></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-is-causing-food-shortages-2015-8" >An unstoppable problem is making it increasingly difficult for the world to produce enough food</a></strong></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/oldest-reproduction-discovered-in-fern-like-creatures-2015-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-effervescence-water-space-2015-7">Here’s what happens when you put an Alka-Seltzer tablet in a droplet of water in zero gravity</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-people-age-different-rates-2015-7Scientists have discovered that people age at different rateshttp://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-people-age-different-rates-2015-7
Mon, 13 Jul 2015 17:29:36 -0400Elizabeth Goldbaum
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/51e015fd69beddbd7900001b-1019-764/retirees-3.jpg" alt="retirees" data-mce-source="pedrosimoes7 via Compfight cc" /></p><p>People age at different rates, and now, a new study finds that people's tendency to age more slowly or quickly than their contemporaries is evident in healthy people as young as their 30s.</p>
<p>In the study, researchers looked at a group of people, all of whom were 38 years old. The researchers determined these participants' "biological ages" based on how well their body systems were working. To determine each person's biological age, the researchers looked at the participants' cognitive abilities, blood pressure and markers of their kidney, liver, lung and immune system function, among other measures.</p>
<p>They found that the participants' biological ages ranged from 28 to 61. In other words, some of the 38-year-olds functioned as well as people in their late 20s, whereas others more closely resembled the functioning of people in their early 60s.</p>
<p>"We set out to measure <a href="http://www.livescience.com/29230-aging-controlled-by-brain.html">aging</a> in these relatively young people," the study's first author, Dan Bel sky, an assistant professor of geriatrics at the Duke University Center for Aging and Human Development, <a href="https://today.duke.edu/2015/07/belskyaging">said in a statement</a>. "Most studies of aging look at seniors, but if we want to be able to prevent age-related disease, we're going to have to start studying aging in young people," he said.</p>
<p>Belsky said he was surprised to find "so much variation already by the midpoint of the life course in how people are aging." "The biological age range being from below 30 to over 60 is really extraordinary," he said.</p>
<p>The same information that the researchers used in the study to determine people's biological ages is typically collected during routine medical checkups. Doctors could use this data to explain to patients, in a relatable way, how their lifestyles are affecting their health, Belsky said.</p>
<p>"When somebody says, 'Well, you're 40 years old, but your body looks 50,'" it's very intuitive for most people to understand what that means for their health, Belsky told Live Science.</p>
<h2>Turning back time</h2>
<p>In the study, researchers looked at data from nearly 1,000 people born between 1972 and 1973 in the same hospital in Dunedin, New Zealand. The participants were part of the Dunedin Study &mdash; an ongoing project to track the health of a group of people from their birth &mdash; and they undergo physical exams and extensive interviews every few years.</p>
<p>The researchers also used data collected from the participants from age 26 to 38, to calculate a "pace of aging" value, or approximate measure of how fast they were aging. For this calculation, the researchers used measures such as the participants' waist-hip ratio, <a href="http://www.livescience.com/40507-what-is-bmi.html">body mass index</a> and <a href="http://www.livescience.com/14835-attention-exercise-haters-everyday-activities-improve-fitness.html">cardiorespiratory fitness</a>.</p>
<p>They found that for people who were aging the most rapidly, every chronological year correlated to three years of physiological aging. People aging faster also tended to report feeling older.</p>
<p>Furthermore, in a separate study in which undergraduate students at a U.S. university looked at photos of the participants' faces, with no additional information, the students rated the participants with higher biological ages as <a href="http://www.livescience.com/50311-3d-facial-imaging-markers-age.html">looking older</a> than their biologically younger counterparts.</p>
<h2>Can people change how old they look?</h2>
<p>Using markers from many body systems gives researchers a better picture of how aging works in the body, Belsky said. "If aging is a process that affects all the organ systems in the body simultaneously, what we're mostly interested in is a broad trend across all those organ systems," he noted.</p>
<p>Going forward, the researchers may add even more biomarkers to their calculations as advanced technology makes it easier to collect more data.</p>
<p>The study shows that it's possible to detect the types of changes that come with age in people who are still young and free of disease, he said. For example, researchers were able to detect declines in organ function and strength, as well as cognitive decline.</p>
<p>The findings also imply that people's habits can affect how quickly they age, and eventually, the research could point to tools or therapies that might be able to <a href="http://www.livescience.com/48983-mediterranean-diet-slower-aging-telomeres.html">slow down the aging process</a>, he said.</p>
<p>"Only about 20 percent &mdash; perhaps a little bit less, or a little bit more &mdash; of variation in life span is genetic in nature," Belsky said, adding that environment and lifestyle play large roles in aging. "What we see with aging is really about the interaction between our genes and the environments we encounter," he said. "There's nothing about this process that's set in stone."</p>
<p>The research was published on July 7 in the journal <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/07/01/1506264112.abstract">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.</p>
<p><em>Elizabeth Goldbaum is on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/EFGoldbaum"><em>Twitter</em></a><em>. Follow Live Science </em><a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience"><em>@livescience</em></a><em>, </em><em><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience">Facebook</a> </em><em>&amp; </em><a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts"><em>Google+</em></a><em>. Original article on <a href="http://www.livescience.com/51506-aging-in-young-people.html">Live Science</a> </em></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-people-age-different-rates-2015-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/science-falling-love-psychology-sex-realtionships-2015-5">5 scientifically proven ways to make someone fall in love with you</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/man-catches-measles-walking-by-a-sick-kid-2015-6Measles is so contagious this man caught it just by walking by a sick kidhttp://www.businessinsider.com/man-catches-measles-walking-by-a-sick-kid-2015-6
Tue, 30 Jun 2015 17:37:47 -0400Rachael Rettner
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55930737371d22a10e8b51b6-711-533/16573852843_d7d0f430a1_c.jpg" alt="16573852843_d7d0f430a1_c" data-mce-source="flickr/David D" data-mce-caption="A kid not completely vaccinated against measles travelled through an airport" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/104419843@N02/16573852843/in/photolist-rfzk2v-3LvLUX-t3GVR-5E2qv8-9gr6nh-5gC7HB-cDrm5d-dSMASB-pfBWbz-98iDp-47kCxw-dmpbvA-jY8Yuo-ogUErw-8JBV7m-ac9JYL-Qx6kZ-5KSTe-8risPu-9h8L2H-4UoV7s-4UoVgo-oSsiMQ-feVDSg-3cf7N2-MjA89-sTNNB7-8MTvkR-6x1DiZ-e5cEfS-7N7Si-g8g1np-9zQiVY-tP5mxq-6pCjZs-LyW2E-dAXPfw-8WQcKC-xT5aX-kSzYG-4zTm8N-3Suf-iBWV7m-oSsjMA-pM9Es-oSvf3Z-5oMWfM-ajTbGa-pMJGRD-6qdGfo" /></p><p>It's no secret that airports are hubs for germs, but one Minnesota man was particularly unlucky during his travels &mdash; he appears to have caught measles simply by passing a sick child while exiting his plane.</p>
<p>The 46-year-old man was traveling from Minnesota to Massachusetts on a business trip in April 2014, with a connection in Chicago, according to a new report of the case. After he arrived in Massachusetts, the man developed a <a href="http://www.livescience.com/49688-measles-symptoms-treatment.html">rash characteristic of measles</a>, and his diagnosis was confirmed with a lab test.</p>
<p>As far as he knew, the man had not been around anyone with measles, and he hadn't traveled out of the United States.</p>
<p>But shortly before his case was reported, health officials in Minnesota had been investigating the case of a sick 19-month-old child, who had come down with measles while on a flight from India to the United States. The family with the sick child had changed planes in Chicago, and flown to Minneapolis.</p>
<p>Officials tracked down people who were on the child's flights, but no one on these planes appeared to have become sick.</p>
<p>Once officials heard of the man's case, they figured out that both the man and the sick child had traveled through the same gate in Chicago. The man had exited his plane in Chicago, using the same gate where the family with the sick child was waiting to board. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/48386-deadliest-viruses-on-earth.html">The 9 Deadliest Viruses on Earth</a>]</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55709e47eab8eac31dc67cd8-1200-800/269939817_d3f8da4735_o.jpg" alt="Airport Line" data-mce-source="Flickr/Jason" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasmic/269939817/in/photolist-pRvGM-a7njQJ-bUaGt6-fMtD58-8geGu4-4f5rS-obLMWt-E6BSR-aHefd-oveNsi-sfNANE-Dixoz-8XzoZ8-pnVp7H-jfsDY-3556be-6Mnpzi-4kpAUV-ntEcPF-8RQ21x-dFMPJz-oUov7a-d4nhb1-s5aXQh-h3s4tX-3rM4Gc-Rt74X-pUx8fu-9EH5Vs-8DajwF-K7Wzf-8Y1Nrw-pLx9k2-ewkE83-9MGubr-G1qg8-62rukd-qcRHNL-8DdsVo-aKzDv-erHFB1-9cixCH-37tiM9-tTZke7-7UoH6p-fai5fn-uwSDR-dT2bDp-9o2n6o-qvZeZL" />"Although transmission could have occurred anywhere in the airport where the child and the adult shared airspace, it most likely occurred in the gate area during the 46-minute interval between the arrival of the adult's flight and the scheduled departure of the child's flight," the researchers, from the Minnesota Department of Health, wrote in the June 26 issue of the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.</p>
<p>"The child's family likely would have been preparing to board near the front of the gate area when the arriving adult exited his aircraft and passed through the area," the researchers said.</p>
<p>A test determined that the man's <a href="http://www.livescience.com/49716-measles-outbreak-questions.html">measles virus</a> was genetically identical to that of the child. Both the man and the child recovered from their illness without complications.</p>
<p>Measles is a highly contagious disease that can be spread through the air. "The infectiousness of measles is evident when considering that transmission in this case occurred at a domestic terminal during a short period with brief contact," the researchers said.</p>
<p>The man didn't know whether he had been vaccinated against measles. The child had received one dose of the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/49717-measles-vaccination-not-too-late.html">measles vaccine</a>, but the single dose appears to have failed to protect the child. The case also underscores the CDC's recommendation that children older than age 1 receive two doses of the measles vaccine before they travel.</p>
<p><em>Follow Rachael Rettner </em><a href="https://twitter.com/RachaelRettner"><em>@RachaelRettner</em></a>. <em>Follow </em><em>Live Science </em><a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience" title="https://twitter/livescience"><em>@livescience</em></a><em>, </em><em><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience" title="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience">Facebook</a> </em><em>&amp; </em><a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts" title="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts"><em>Google+</em></a><em>. Original article on </em><a href="http://www.livescience.com/51350-measles-airport-gate-change.html"><em>Live Science</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p>Copyright 2015 <a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a>, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-will-happen-when-antibiotics-stop-working-2015-6" >Here's the horrifying reality we'll have to live in when antibiotics stop working</a></strong></p>
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Tue, 30 Jun 2015 12:59:00 -0400Elizabeth Goldbaum
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5592c0aa371d2211008b5308-575-431/helheim.jpg" alt="Glacier earthquakes" data-mce-source="Swansea University/Nick Selmes" data-mce-caption="Researchers setting up GPS equipment next to the north side of Helheim Glacier in Greenland" /></p><p>When large chunks of ice break off of a glacier and plop with a giant splash into the chilly water, the result can be lots of thunderous shaking. These mysterious glacial quakes have increased seven-fold in Greenland in the past two decades, according to new research.</p>
<p>Now, scientists think they've figured out the cause of the rumbling phenomenon, at least in Greenland. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Scientists monitored the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/31989-major-glacier-calving-captured-in-time-lapse-video-video.html">Helheim Glacier</a>, a major outlet of the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/49361-greenland-ice-glacier-formation.html">Greenland Ice Sheet</a>, over 55 days from July to September 2013. They recorded 10 glacial earthquakes, some of which registered a <a href="http://www.livescience.com/32779-measuring-earthquake-magnitude-richter-scale.html">magnitude</a> of 5.0, and saw the glacier retreat by about 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) following the shaking events.</p>
<p>The scientists discovered that, when a big chunk of ice splits, or "calves," from a massive glacier and tips forward into the ocean, it could force the glacier not only to stop inching forward, but also to push it backward. The backward movement and the subsequent change in water pressure cause glacial earthquakes, which can trigger massive tsunami waves and thunderous rumbling. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/29320-greenland-images-gorgeous-glaciers.html">See Photos of Greenland's Gorgeous Glaciers</a>]</p>
<p>"It's like taking a really strong spring, pushing on the front of it and just making it compress," said study co-author Meredith Nettles, a professor of earth science at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City. The glacier moves backward for a few minutes before springing forward again and moving as normal, Nettles said.</p>
<p>Glaciers typically move about 95 to 100 feet (about 30 meters) per day (or about 0.35 millimeters per second), but when an iceberg calves off and causes an earthquake, the force can turn the glacier completely around and force the front edge to move in the opposite direction at a rate of 130 feet (40 meters) per day &mdash; about 0.46 mm per second &mdash; for a few minutes, Nettles said.</p>
<p>As a recently calved iceberg begins to topple over into the ocean, it displaces a lot of water, Nettles said. Simultaneously, water rushes in to fill the space between the iceberg and the remaining glacier. That water motion causes a low-pressure zone behind the iceberg (the one that just plunged into the water) strong enough to suck water up from the ocean floor. The upward force on the Earth and the force of the falling iceberg produce a measurable seismic wave, Nettles explained.</p>
<p>As the climate warms, such icy quakes will increase in frequency because calving rates rise when water temperatures and air temperatures rise, and they change depending on how fast the glacier is flowing, the scientists said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.livescience.com/22511-antarctic-glacier-quakes-tides.html">Glacial earthquakes</a> induced by calving occur seven times more frequently than they did in the early 1990s, according to Nettles. "Calving is such an important component of the mass loss in both Greenland and <a href="http://www.livescience.com/21677-antarctica-facts.html">Antarctica</a> &mdash; it's really important to try and understand how calving actually works," Nettles said. This fast pace "is very human in its timescale," she said, linking it to anthropogenic climate change.</p>
<p>Calved icebergs often weigh around 1 gigaton (1 billion tons) and hold enough water to fill Central Park up to the Empire State Building, Nettles said. "The mass loss of ice from Greenland is quite large," she continued. "It's something like 300 to 400 gigatons of ice per year." The size of the iceberg appears to determine the magnitude of the earthquake.</p>
<p>"The difficult thing about Greenland is, it's so important for sea level rise because [compared to other countries with massive ice sheets] it's quite far south," said study co-author Timothy James, a professor of geography at Swansea University in the United Kingdom. Watching a glacial earthquake unfold back in 2010 for a prior mission to study glacial earthquakes "was a really lucky experience," he said. "Every once in a while, you'd hear a crack and a bang," he added, "but by the time the sound actually got to you, you turned and didn't really see anything."</p>
<p>"We found that we were actually having to sit there very carefully, looking at it and going, 'Do you see anything moving? I think the front's getting higher.' It was just all kind of quite slow to look at, but the noise was absolutely chaotic. I think that was the most surprising thing," James said.</p>
<p>The researchers detailed their findings today (June 25) in the journal ScienceXpress.</p>
<p><em>Elizabeth Goldbaum is on <a href="https://twitter.com/EFGoldbaum">Twitter</a>. Follow Live Science <a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience">@livescience</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience">Facebook</a> &amp; <a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts">Google+</a>. Original article on <a href="http://www.livescience.com/51349-helheim-glacier-earthquake.html">Live Science</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Copyright 2015 <a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a>, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</em></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hidden-tunnels-under-antarctica-could-cause-a-glacier-the-size-of-california-to-collapse-2015-3" >Hidden tunnels under Antarctica could cause a glacier the size of California to collapse</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/melting-glaciers-cause-earthquakes-2015-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/largest-ice-glacier-calving-filmed-2015-1">This Video Of The Largest Breakage Of Ice From A Glacier Ever Filmed Is Absolutely Frightening</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/rare-siberian-tigers-close-up-images-2015-5Rare Siberian tigers captured in incredible close up images http://www.businessinsider.com/rare-siberian-tigers-close-up-images-2015-5
Mon, 11 May 2015 13:27:13 -0400Jonathan Slaght and Julie Larsen Maher
<p><em><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5550e480eab8ea8d4c915edd-886-664/tigers-8-amur-snow-jlm-3.jpg" border="0" alt="tigers 8 amur snow jlm">Jonathan Slaght is projects manager for WCS's Russia Program.&nbsp;Julie Larsen Maher is staff photographer for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the first woman to hold the position since the society's founding in 1895. </em></p>
<p><em>In addition to field visits, Maher photographs the animals at WCS's five New York-based wildlife parks: the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, New York Aquarium, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo. </em></p>
<p><em>The authors contributed this article to Live Science's</em> <a href="http://www.livescience.com/topics/expert-voices-op-ed-and-insights/">Expert Voices: Op-Ed &amp; Insights</a>.</p>
<p>Siberian tigers buck the trend.</p>
<p>Most people think of tigers as regal beasts creeping through steamy subtropical jungles against the background cacophony of shrieking monkeys and barking deer. But these cats live in the snow-covered lands of the Russian Far East. They are also known as Amur tigers, as there are no tigers in Siberia; Russian tigers live in the Amur River basin, hence Amur tiger, and they hunt deer and boar in oak forests not too different from those in the northeastern United States. And in autumn, these tigers' orange coats blend with the fall colors to render them almost invisible to prying eyes. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/29822-tiger-subspecies-images.html">Iconic Cats: All 9 Subspecies of Tigers</a>]</p>
<p>Their camouflage and stealth aren't the only reasons Amur tigers are hard to see: These cats have territories 20 times larger than those of the tigers living in southeast Asia. A single Amur male might have a territory up to 500 square miles (1,295 square kilometers) in size. This is because there are far fewer prey animals in the harsher climate of Russia than in jungles, so tigers have to go much further to find and kill enough prey to survive. So, given their camouflage and their rarity, Amur tigers are almost impossible to see.</p>
<p>The tigers almost went extinct in the wild. Luckily, the concerted efforts of dedicated scientists and far-sighted Soviet officials in the middle of the last century bore fruit, and today Russia is the only tiger-range state to demonstrate a recovery of tiger populations. Hundreds of the cats roam the forests now, where 70 years ago there were only a few dozen.</p>
<p>These images celebrate Amur tigers and their habitat: May these temperate forests of the Russian Far East forever echo with the haunting roars of these incredible animals.</p>
<p>In New York, Amur tigers call the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo home. They live in Tiger Mountain, where they play a vital role as representatives for their wild relatives.</p>
<p><strong>Fall for Tigers</strong></p>
<p><strong><img class="full" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5550e253eab8eabc3e915edc-881-660/tigers-1-amur-jlm-norma-2.jpg" border="0" alt="tigers 1 amur jlm norma"><br></strong></p>
<p>With fur the color of a warm fall afternoon, Amur tigers are known for their power and beauty. The black stripes on their coats are unique to each cat.</p>
<p><strong>Tigers of the Temperate Forest</strong></p>
<p><strong><img class="full" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5550e28669bedd141d02b68d-1000-648/tigers-2-temerate-forest-slaght.jpg" border="0" alt="tigers 2 temerate forest slaght"><br></strong></p>
<p>Oak, maple and pine trees peer over a cliff to the Sea of Japan at the Lazovskii Nature Reserve in the southern Russian Far East. The Amur tigers here hunt sika deer, wild boar and even basking harbor seals.</p>
<p><strong>A Coat for All Seasons</strong></p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5550e2bfecad0442562ae3b1-1000-762/tigers-3-coat-slaght.jpg" border="0" alt="tigers 3 coat slaght.JPG">The colors and patterns of Amur tiger coats allow the animals to blend seamlessly with the surrounding landscape. The fur of these coats is also longer and denser than the coats of other tiger subspecies, which allows the Amurs to endure harsh Russian winters.</p>
<p><strong>A Cat That Likes to Swim</strong></p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5550e3036da8112c257dced7-1000-666/tigers-4-amur-jlm.jpg" border="0" alt="tigers 4 amur jlm">Amur tigers enjoy the water, not a common predilection among cats. These tigers swim and splash in bodies of water, sometimes even crossing the wide Amur River that forms the border between the Russian Far East and northeast China.</p>
<p><strong>Raspberry Pass</strong></p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5550e33169bedd1e1d02b68d-1000-666/tigers-5-raspberrypass-slaght.jpg" border="0" alt="tigers 5 raspberrypass slaght">A fresh snow blankets Malinovii ("Raspberry") Pass on the edge of the Sikhote-Alin Reserve in Primorye, Russia. This reserve is the largest single protected area of Amur tigers in the world.</p>
<p><strong>Small Cubs, Big Cats</strong></p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5550e36269bedd1a1e02b68d-1000-666/tigers-6-amur-with-cub-jlm.jpg" border="0" alt="tigers 6 amur with cub jlm">Amur tiger cubs learn to hunt at about 18 months, and stay with their mothers until reaching age 2 or 3. Amur tigers are among the largest cats in the world. Although cubs are tiny at birth and weigh only a few pounds, adults in the wild weigh between 250 and 500 lbs. (113 to 227 kilograms).</p>
<p><strong>Chain of Command</strong></p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5550e38e69bedd041c02b690-1000-750/tigers-7-chainofcommand-slaght.jpg" border="0" alt="tigers 7 chainofcommand slaght">Rippling hills of oak dotted with pine in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve mean one thing: excellent wild-boar habitat. These animals survive the winter owing to the abundance of acorns and pine nuts in these forests, and this in turn ensures Amur tiger survival.</p>
<p><strong>Let It Snow</strong></p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5550e3bcecad0441562ae3b3-1000-665/tigers-8-amur-snow-jlm.jpg" border="0" alt="tigers 8 amur snow jlm">Amur tigers paws are large. A male's measures about 5 inches (13 centimeters) across, with extra fur to navigate the snowy slopes of the animal's home.</p>
<p><strong>Follow the Footprints</strong></p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5550e3e8ecad042d5d2ae3b1-1000-750/tigers-9-footprints-slaght.jpg" border="0" alt="tigers 9 footprints slaght.JPG">The tracks of a large male Amur tiger appeared overnight along this logging road in the southern Russian Far East. Given the region's deep snows in winter, tigers often use roads as travel corridors, which exposes them to the risk of vehicle strikes or poaching.</p>
<p>Learn more about Amur tigers and other wildlife on the WCS photo blog, Wild View, in the post <a href="http://blog.wcs.org/photo/2015/04/17/jonathan-slaght-looking-for-the-last-of-the-wild-owl-tiger-russia/">Looking for the Last of the Wild</a>, and on <a href="https://jonathanslaght.wordpress.com/">Jonathan Slaght's tiger blog</a>.</p>
<p><em>Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/expertvoices">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/expert_voices">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/102966466858233835249/102966466858233835249/posts">Google+</a>. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on <a href="http://www.livescience.com/50754-elusive-siberian-tigers-stunning-in-photographs.html">Live Science.</a></em></p>
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<p>Copyright 2015 <a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a>, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-chinese-man-jailed-for-eating-tigers-2014-12" >Chinese Man Gets 13 Years Of Jail Time For Allegedly Eating Tigers</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rare-siberian-tigers-close-up-images-2015-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/underwater-video-exotic-animals-drinking-water-gopro-2015-4">Amazing video captures how exotic animals drink water</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-house-where-jesus-grew-up-2015-3Archaeologists think they found the house where Jesus grew up in Nazarethhttp://www.businessinsider.com/the-house-where-jesus-grew-up-2015-3
Wed, 04 Mar 2015 17:11:33 -0500Owen Jarus
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/54f77befeab8eaae170297b7-800-600/arch1.jpeg" border="0" alt="arch1"></p><p>Archaeologists working in Nazareth — Jesus' hometown — in modern-day Israel have identified a house dating to the first century that was regarded as the place where Jesus was brought up by Mary and Joseph.</p>
<p>The house is partly made of mortar-and-stone walls, and was cut into a rocky hillside. It was first uncovered in the 1880s, by nuns at the Sisters of Nazareth convent, but it wasn't until 2006 that archaeologists led by Ken Dark, a professor at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, dated the house to the first century, and identified it as the place where people, who lived centuries after Jesus' time, believed <a href="http://www.livescience.com/3482-jesus-man.html">Jesus</a> was brought up.</p>
<p>Whether Jesus actually lived in the house in real life is unknown, but Dark says that it is possible. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/49941-jesus-home-photos.html">See Images of the 'Jesus' House and Nazareth Artifacts</a>]</p>
<p>"Was this the house where Jesus grew up? It is impossible to say on archaeological grounds," Dark wrote in an article published in the magazine <a href="http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/magazine/">Biblical Archaeology Review</a>. "On the other hand, there is no good archaeological reason why such an identification should be discounted."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.livescience.com/44954-mysteries-questions-jesus-birth-death.html"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/54f77bef69bedd696299c1f1-800-600/arch2.jpeg" border="0" alt="arch2">Jesus</a> is believed to have grown up in Nazareth. Archaeologists found that, centuries after Jesus' time, the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/42158-history-of-the-byzantine-empire.html">Byzantine Empire</a> (which controlled Nazareth up until the seventh century) decorated the house with mosaics and constructed a church known as the "Church of the Nutrition" over the house, protecting it.</p>
<p>Crusaders who ventured into <a href="http://www.livescience.com/40046-holy-land-archaeological-finds.html">the Holy Land</a> in the 12th century fixed up the church after it fell into disrepair. This evidence suggests that both the Byzantines and Crusaders believed that this was the home <a href="http://www.livescience.com/20987-jesus-birthplace-church-nativity.html">where Jesus was brought up</a>, Dark said.</p>
<h1>The story of the Jesus house</h1>
<p>Until recently few archaeological remains that date to the first century were known from Nazareth and those mostly consisted of tombs. However in the last few years, archaeologists have identified two first-century houses in this town. (The other house was discovered in 2009 and is not thought to be where Jesus grew up.) [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/40046-holy-land-archaeological-finds.html">The Holy Land: 7 Amazing Archaeological Finds</a>]</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/54f77bef6bb3f70a7371c29e-800-600/arch3.jpeg" border="0" alt="arch3">The nuns' excavations of Jesus' possible home in the 1880s were followed up in 1936, when Jesuit priest Henri Senès, who was an architect before becoming a priest, visited the site, according to Dark. Senès recorded in great detail the structures the nuns had exposed. His work was mostly unpublished and so it was largely unknown to anyone but the nuns and the people who visited their convent.</p>
<p>In 2006, the nuns granted the Nazareth Archaeological Project full access to the site, including Senès drawings and notes, which they had carefully stored. Dark and the project's other archaeologists surveyed the site, and by combining their findings, a new analysis of Senès' findings, notes from the nuns' earlier excavations and other information, they reconstructed the development of the site from the first century to the present.</p>
<h1>From simple dwelling to sacred site</h1>
<p>The artifacts found in the first-century house include broken cooking pots, a spindle whorl (used in spinning thread) and limestone vessels, suggesting possibly a family lived there, the archaeologists said. The limestone vessels suggest a Jewish family lived in the house, because <a href="http://www.livescience.com/40373-non-jews-feel-jewish-connection.html">Jewish beliefs</a> held that limestone could not become impure. If a Jewish family lived here it would support the idea that this could have been Jesus' house.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/54f77bef69bedd6c5e99c1f8-800-680/arch4.jpg" border="0" alt="arch4">The first-century house "had been constructed by cutting back a limestone hillside as it sloped toward the wadi (valley) below, leaving carefully smoothed freestanding rock walls, to which stone-built walls were added," Dark wrote in a Biblical Archaeology Review article.</p>
<p>"The structure included a series of rooms," he wrote. "One, with its doorway, survived to its full height. Another had a stairway rising adjacent to one of its walls. Just inside the surviving doorway, earlier excavations had revealed part of its original chalk floor."</p>
<p>Dark and his colleagues found that the house was abandoned at some point during the first century. After that, the area was used for quarrying and then later in the first century it was reused as a burial ground. Two tombs (now empty) were constructed beside the abandoned house, with the forecourt of one of the tombs cutting through the house, the researchers said.</p>
<p>Centuries after Jesus' time, the Church of the Nutrition was built around this house and the two adjacent tombs, but the church fell into disuse in the eighth century. It was rebuilt in the 12th century, when <a href="http://www.livescience.com/17027-crusader-arabic-inscription-translated.html">Crusaders</a> were in control of the area, only to be burnt down in the 13th century, Dark said.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/54f77bef6da8111d16e85d08-800-1048/arch6.jpg" border="0" alt="arch6">The fact that the house was protected explains its "excellent preservation," Dark wrote. "Great efforts had been made to encompass the remains of this building within the vaulted cellars of both the Byzantine and Crusader churches, so that it was thereafter protected," he said.</p>
<p>"Both the tombs and the house were decorated with mosaics in the Byzantine period, suggesting that they were of special importance, and possibly venerated," he wrote.</p>
<p>In addition to the archaeological evidence, a text written in A.D. 670 by abbot Adomnàn of the Scottish island monastery at Iona, said to be based on a pilgrimage to Nazareth made by the Frankish bishop Arculf, mentions a church "where once there was the house in which the Lord was nourished in his infancy" (according to a translation of Adomnàn's writing by James Rose Macpherson).</p>
<p>The tomb that cuts through the house was also venerated as being that of Joseph, the husband of <a href="http://www.livescience.com/42175-virgin-birth-why-we-believe.html">the Virgin Mary</a>. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/38014-physical-evidence-jesus-debated.html">Proof of Jesus Christ? 7 Pieces of Evidence Debated</a>]</p>
<p>"The tomb cutting through the house is today commonly called 'the Tomb of St. Joseph,' and it was certainly venerated in the Crusader period, so perhaps they thought it was the tomb of St. Joseph," Dark told Live Science. "However, it is unlikely to be the actual tomb of St. Joseph, given that it dates to after the disuse of the house and localized quarrying in the first century."</p>
<h1>What was Nazareth like?</h1>
<p>Archaeologists also discovered a number of sites nearby that hold clues as to what Nazareth was like in Jesus' time.</p>
<p>Rulers in Rome began to take control of Israel during the first century B.C. But Dark and his team found evidence that, despite Rome's increasing influence, the people living in and near Nazareth rejected Roman culture.</p>
<p>The archaeologists surveyed a valley near Nazareth called Nahal Zippori, finding that people who lived on the northern side of the valley, close to the Roman town of Sepphoris, were more willing to embrace Roman culture than those to the south, nearer to Nazareth, who appear to have rejected it.</p>
<p>"This suggests that the Nazareth area was unusual for the strength of its anti-Roman sentiment and/or the strength of its Jewish identity," Dark said.</p>
<p>Dark and his team have published journal articles on their work in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly and The Antiquaries Journal. More publications on the team's archaeological work at Nazareth are forthcoming. It may be some time before scholars not affiliated with the project fully analyze the findings, and weigh in on the team's conclusions.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Follow us <a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience">@livescience</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience">Facebook</a> &amp; <a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts">Google+</a>. Original article on <a href="http://www.livescience.com/49997-jesus-house-possibly-found-nazareth.html">Live Science</a>.</em></p>
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<p><em>Copyright 2015 <a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a>, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</em></p><p><strong>CHECK OUT:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-timeline-of-human-evolution-graphic-2015-3" >Two new fossils just rewrote the timeline of human evolution — here's what it looks like now</a></strong></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-house-where-jesus-grew-up-2015-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/physics-guitar-mystery-oxford-rockstar-rock-music-2014-9">An Oxford Professor Has Unlocked The Mysterious Science Of The Guitar</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-stresses-americans-out-the-most-2015-2Here's what stresses Americans out the mosthttp://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-stresses-americans-out-the-most-2015-2
Wed, 11 Feb 2015 14:03:18 -0500Megan Gannon
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/54b0241a69beddb6790a8ce7-909-681/man-stressed-out.jpg" border="0" alt="Man Stressed Out"></p><p>If you tend to worry about making ends meet, you're not alone. Money is the No. 1 stress factor for adults in the United States, topping work, family obligations and health concerns, a new survey found.</p>
<p>Parents, Gen Xers, millennials, women and those living in lower-income households report higher-than-average levels of stress — especially when it comes to money, according to the results.</p>
<p>And people who reported a lot of anxiety about money were more likely to use unhealthy habits to deal with their stress, like binge-watching TV, drinking or smoking, the survey showed. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/35957-lower-stress-tips.html">11 Tips to Lower Stress</a>]</p>
<p>The American Psychological Association (APA) commissioned <a href="http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2014/stress-report.pdf">the survey</a> of more 3,000 adults from across the United States in August 2014.</p>
<p>The poll found that 72 percent of Americans had felt stressed about money at some point during the previous month, including 22 percent who felt "extreme stress" about money during that time.</p>
<p>For many Americans, there's little relief from that anxiety: 26 percent said they felt stressed about their finances most or all of the time, while 54 percent said they have "just enough" or "not enough" money to make ends meet at the end of the month, according to the survey.</p>
<p>Overall, 64 percent of Americans rated money a somewhat or very significant source of stress. But that percentage ticks up for certain demographic groups: parents with kids under 18 (77 percent), Gen Xers (76 percent) and millennials (75 percent).</p>
<p>Americans living in households with an annual income of less than $50,000 had higher overall stress levels than people in households earning more than $50,000 per year (5.2 vs. 4.7 out of 10 on a stress-measuring scale), according to the survey. That gap has widened over of the past seven years; in 2007, both income groups reported the same average stress levels (6.2 on a 10-point scale). Lower-income Americans were also twice as likely to say they worried about money all or most of the time compared with their better-off peers (36 percent vs. 18 percent), according to the poll.</p>
<p>Besides money, other top-rated sources of stress were at least loosely tied to finances. A majority of Americans (60 percent) said <a href="http://www.livescience.com/36577-reduce-job-stress.html">work was a very or somewhat significant source of stress</a>, while 49 percent said the same about the economy, 47 percent were stressed about family responsibilities and 46 percent were stressed about health concerns.</p>
<p>Overall, stress levels for Americans actually dipped last year, to 4.9 out of 10 on a stress-measuring scale, down from 6.2 in 2007. But that level still might be higher than what Americans said they considered healthy: 3.7 out of 10, on average.</p>
<p>High stress levels can have reverberating effects on a person's health and well-being. About 75 percent of Americans said they experienced at least one negative side effect of stress in the previous month, such as feeling irritable or angry (37 percent), nervous or anxious (35 percent), unmotivated (34 percent), <a href="http://www.livescience.com/34713-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-women-health.html">fatigued</a> (32 percent), overwhelmed (32 percent) and depressed (32 percent).</p>
<p>People who reported more extreme stress levels over money were more likely to deal with their stress in unhealthy, or at least sedentary, ways, such as watching more than 2 hours of TV in a day, browsing the Internet, eating, sleeping, smoking or drinking. And about one in five of the people polled said that they have either thought about skipping or<a href="http://www.livescience.com/28665-prescription-medication-costs.html">have skipped going to the doctor</a> because of financial concerns, even when they needed health care.</p>
<p><em>Follow Megan Gannon on </em><em><a href="https://twitter.com/meganigannon">Twitter</a>.</em> <em>Follow us </em><a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience"><em>@livescience</em></a><em>, </em><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience"><em>Facebook</em></a> <em>&amp; </em><a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts"><em>Google+</em></a><em>. Original article on </em><em><a href="http://www.livescience.com/49706-what-stresses-americans-survey.html">Live Science</a>.</em></p>
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<p>Copyright 2015 <a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a>, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</p>
<p>Here's what stresses Americans out the most</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/forgiveness-helps-relieve-stress-clear-the-mind-2015-1" >The secret to relieving stress and clearing your mind is surprisingly simple</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-stresses-americans-out-the-most-2015-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/end-fall-demise-mayan-civilization-new-evidence-2015-1">Scientists Discovered What Actually Wiped Out The Mayan Civilization</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/new-species-of-shimmery-goblin-spiders-2015-25 new species of shimmery 'goblin' spiders foundhttp://www.businessinsider.com/new-species-of-shimmery-goblin-spiders-2015-2
Tue, 03 Feb 2015 10:09:00 -0500Agata Blaszczak-Boxe
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/54d0dff969beddf01cf58ebd-800-427/volboratella teresae goblin spider female lateral[1].jpg" border="0" alt="Volboratella teresae goblin spider female lateral"></p><p>Five new species of tiny, shimmering spiders have been discovered in Madagascar, according to a new study.</p>
<p>The new species belong to the family of <a href="http://www.livescience.com/13825-goblins-spiders-ria-110420.html">goblin spiders</a>, which are extremely small arachnids with body lengths ranging from about 0.04 to 0.12 inches (1 to 3 millimeters).</p>
<p>In the study, researchers looked at 326 spider specimens they had previously collected in Madagascar over the course of a few years. After examining the spiders' physical characteristics, such as their genitalia, the investigators determined that the animals should be classified as five species under a new genus that they named Volboratella.</p>
<p>"It is a remarkable discovery — a genus comprising a number of species previously unknown to science, unknown to the world," said study author Charles E. Griswold, curator of arachnology at California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.</p>
<p>One of the features that distinguishes the members of the new genus from other goblin spiders is the glistening appearance of their miniscule abdomens.</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54d0e067ecad04a00e8f9524-800-921/volboratella teresae goblin spider female dorsal[1].jpg" border="0" alt="Volboratella teresae goblin spider female dorsal[1]">"These are shimmering goblin spiders; they have a structural color to their body that makes them look almost like they are covered with glitter," Griswold told Live Science.</p>
<p>"And no one had ever seen this before, so we realized pretty quickly that these are new to science."</p>
<p>The researchers also identified other unusual characteristics of the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/32582-how-do-spiders-make-silk.html">arachnids' anatomies</a>, including little hairs that look a bit like feathers, and tiny bumps located between the two major sections of the spiders' bodies, Griswold said.</p>
<p>"These hairs and bumps may interact in some way, maybe to create vibrations so that spiders can communicate — we don't really know how they use the feather hairs and bumps," he said.</p>
<p>The investigators distinguished between the five species of the new genus by examining further details of the animals' genitalia and other physical features, Griswold said.</p>
<p>"A lot of it, though, was based upon very subtle and hard-to-observe distinctions," he said, adding that the researchers used a special scanning electron microscope that allowed them to examine the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/48325-nikon-small-world-2014-photos.html">tiny creatures</a> in detail.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.livescience.com/22122-types-of-spiders.html">spider species</a> described in the study are endemic to Madagascar, Griswold said. However, other goblin spiders can be found all over the world. There are probably more than 2,000 species of goblin spiders worldwide, he said.</p>
<p>"Goblin spiders are very rich in species, but they are still relatively little known to science," Griswold said. "So, there is so much to discover there."</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/54d0e1746bb3f7bb428f6844-800-600/goblin spider male and female dorsal.jpg" border="0" alt="Goblin spider male and female dorsal">Goblin spiders are unusual in that they don't build webs, and they live in the dirt. "They are mostly armor-plated, and they burrow through the soil and humus, kind of like beetles," he said.</p>
<p>The spiders prey on a wide variety of animals, such as soil mites and worms that squiggle through the humus, Griswold said.</p>
<p>"And we think this is one of the reasons there are so many species of goblin spiders," he said. "They have hit upon a lifestyle; they evolved this lifestyle a long time ago that allows them to burrow through the humus, and they are among the only spiders able to do that."</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1206/3822.1?journalCode=novi">study</a> was published in the January issue of the journal American Museum Novitates.</p><p><strong>UP NEXT:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-roosters-crow-2015-2" >Why do roosters crow?</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>ALSO READ:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hundreds-of-birds-in-san-francisco-are-getting-coated-in-a-mysterious-goop-and-nobody-knows-what-it-is-2015-1" >Hundreds of birds in San Francisco are getting coated in a mysterious goop and nobody knows what it is</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-species-of-shimmery-goblin-spiders-2015-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/medical-supplies-on-blackbeards-pirate-ship-2015-2Ancient medical supplies found on the ship of the famous pirate Blackbeardhttp://www.businessinsider.com/medical-supplies-on-blackbeards-pirate-ship-2015-2
Mon, 02 Feb 2015 19:39:00 -0500Owen Jarus
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54d010a46da811911d7a3070-800-758/blackbeard artifact mortar pestle.jpg" border="0" alt="Blackbeard Artifact Mortar Pestle"></p><p>Archaeologists are excavating the vessel that served as the flagship of the pirate Blackbeard, and the medical equipment they have recovered from the shipwreck suggests the notorious buccaneer had to toil to keep his crew healthy.</p>
<p>Blackbeard is the most famous pirate who ever lived. His real name was Edward Teach (or possibly Thatch), and his flagship, the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/30829-queen-annes-revenge-gallery.html">Queen Anne's Revenge</a>, was formerly a French slave vessel named La Concorde de Nantes that Blackbeard captured in November 1717.</p>
<p>Blackbeard was able to capture this ship easily because much of its crew was either sick or dead due to disease.</p>
<p>A few months into 1718, the Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground on a sandbar at Topsail Inlet in North Carolina. Blackbeard abandoned much of his crew at that point, leaving the site with a select group of men and most of the plunder. He was killed in battle later that year.</p>
<p>The wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge was rediscovered in 1996 and has been under excavation by the <a href="http://www.qaronline.org/">Queen Anne's Revenge Project</a>. Archaeologists have recovered <a href="http://www.livescience.com/37345-blackbeard-pirate-cannons-excavated.html">many artifacts</a>, including a number of medical instruments. These artifacts, combined with historical records, paint a picture of a pirate captain who tried to keep his crew in fighting shape.</p>
<p>"Treating the sick and injured of a sea-bound community on shipboard was challenging in the best of times," Linda Carnes-McNaughton, an archaeologist and curator with the Department of Defense who volunteers her time on the excavation project, wrote in a paper she presented recently at the Society for Historical Archaeology annual meeting. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/49564-photos-blackbeard-pirate-medical-instruments.html">Photos: The Medical Instruments Found on Blackbeard's Ship</a>]</p>
<p>The people on a ship like Blackbeard's would have had to contend with many conditions, including "chronic and periodic illnesses, wounds, amputations, toothaches, burns and other indescribable maladies," Carnes-McNaughton said.</p>
<h2><strong>Blackbeard's surgeons</strong></h2>
<p>In fact, maintaining the crew's health was so important that when Blackbeard turned the Queen Anne's Revenge into his flagship, he released most of the French crew members he had captured, but he forced the ship's three surgeons to stay, along with a few other specialized workers like carpenters and the cook, Carnes-McNaughton said.</p>
<p>She noted, however, that "The Sea-Man's Vade Mecum" of 1707<em>,</em>which contained the rules that seafarers were supposed to follow, had a provision stating that surgeons could not leave their ship until its voyage was complete.</p>
<p>Carnes-McNaughton investigated both the La Concorde de Nantes' crew muster, which is the document that lists crew members' names and salaries, as well as court records to learn more about the surgeons Blackbeard captured.</p>
<p>The ship's muster indicates that La Concorde de Nantes' surgeon major was a man named Jean Dubou (or Dubois), from St. Etienne. Before he was captured by Blackbeard, Dubou was being paid 50 livres for his work on the ship's voyage. The second surgeon was Marc Bourgneuf of La Rochelle, who was paid 30 livres for the voyage.</p>
<p>The third surgeon was Claude Deshayes, who was listed as a gunsmith on the muster and paid 22 livres for his work. The muster also names a surgeon's aide, Nicholas Gautrain, who was paid 12 livres. Although he is named on the muster, Gautrain is not mentioned in court records.</p>
<h2><strong>Medical equipment</strong></h2>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/54d0104aecad047536dce601-864-368/blackbeard artifact syringe.jpg" border="0" alt="Blackbeard artifact Syringe">When archaeologists excavated the Queen Anne's Revenge they found a number of medical instruments, some with marks that indicate they were manufactured in France. Carnes-McNaughton said that Dubou and his aides were required to supply their own medical equipment, and Blackbeard likely captured this equipment when he captured the surgeons. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/29594-earths-most-mysterious-archeological-discoveries-.html">The 7 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth</a>]</p>
<p>Among the finds was a urethral syringe that chemical analysis indicates originally contained mercury. Carnes-McNaughton told Live Science that this would have been used to treat <a href="http://www.livescience.com/36420-blood-donation-metabolic-syndrome-obesity.html">syphilis</a>, a sexually transmitted disease. "Eventually the mercury kills you," she said, explaining that the patient could suffer mercury poisoning.</p>
<p>Archaeologists also found the remains of two pump clysters. These would have been used to pump fluid into the rectum, allowing it to be absorbed quickly, Carnes-McNaughton said. It's not clear exactly why this would have been done, but there are plans to analyze the clysters to find out what material they contained before the ship was wrecked.</p>
<p>An instrument called a porringer was also found, which may have been used in bloodletting treatments, Carnes-McNaughton said. People in the early 18<sup>th</sup> century believed that bloodletting could cure some conditions and a modern-day form of the treatment is <a href="http://www.livescience.com/36420-blood-donation-metabolic-syndrome-obesity.html">still used</a> for a few conditions.</p>
<p>Archaeologists also found a cast brass mortar and pestle and two sets of nesting weights, devices that would have been used in preparing medicine. The remains of galley pots were also found that would have been used to store balms, salves and other potions.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/54d0143fecad04154adce600-878-336/blackbeard artifact cups brass weights.jpg" border="0" alt="Blackbeard Artifact cups brass weights">Some items were found that could have been used medically or non-medically, Carnes-McNaughton said, including a silver needle and the remains of scissors, which could have been handy during surgeries. Two pairs of brass set screws were also found that may have been used in a tourniquet, a device that limits bleeding during amputations.</p>
<p>Carnes-McNaughton said she is going to compare the medical equipment from Queen Anne's Revenge to those found on other wrecks.</p>
<h2><strong>Getting medicine</strong></h2>
<p>But although the captured surgeons had medical equipment, Blackbeard would have still needed a supply of medicine to treat his crew. He got some in 1718, after he spent a week blockading the port of Charleston, South Carolina. Blackbeard captured ships that tried to get past him, holding their crew and passengers hostage.</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/54d01263eab8ea0114dc14d2-800-1133/blackbeard artifact brass scale weight.jpg" border="0" alt="Blackbeard artifact brass scale weight">When it came time to parley with the governor of South Carolina, a chest of medicine was demanded.</p>
<p>Blackbeard threatened that he "would murder all their prisoners, send up their heads to the governor, and set the ships they had taken on fire," if the governor didn't deliver the medicine chest, writes Capt. Charles Johnson, who published an account of Blackbeard in 1724.</p>
<p>The governor promptly complied and the prisoners were released.</p>
<p>In the end, Blackbeard's efforts to keep up his crew's health didn't change the pirate's own fate when he was hunted down in November 1718 by the Royal Navy.</p>
<p>Blackbeard was in good enough shape that he is said to have put up a terrific final fight while trying to board an enemy ship.</p>
<p>"He stood his ground and fought with great fury, till he received five and 20 wounds, and five of them by shot," Johnson wrote. "At length, as he was cocking another pistol, having fired several before, [when] he fell down dead."</p>
<p><em>Follow Live Science </em><a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience"><em>@livescience</em></a><em>, </em><em><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience">Facebook</a> </em><em>&amp; </em><a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts"><em>Google+</em></a><em>.</em> <em>Originally published on </em><a href="http://www.livescience.com/49563-blackbeard-pirate-ship-yields-medical-supplies.html"><em>Live Science</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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<p><em>Copyright 2015 <a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a>, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</em></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/47407-jesus-statue-with-human-teeth.html#ixzz3QdY1BrNq" >300-Year-Old Jesus Statue Found To Have Real Human Teeth</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/medical-supplies-on-blackbeards-pirate-ship-2015-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/having-money-is-more-important-than-having-married-parents-2015-2Having money is more important than having married parentshttp://www.businessinsider.com/having-money-is-more-important-than-having-married-parents-2015-2
Mon, 02 Feb 2015 18:41:09 -0500Stephanie Pappas
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4f70b72769beddb54f000065-400-300/parentskidsmoney.jpg" border="0" alt="parents, kids, money, parenting, cash, bills,"></p><p>When it comes to good parenting, having money matters more than being <a href="http://www.livescience.com/49600-money-marriage-parenting.html#" rel="nofollow">married</a>, a new study concludes.</p>
<p>Whether <a href="http://www.livescience.com/16185-marriage-divorce-statistics-infographic.html">single, married or divorced</a>, American <a href="http://www.livescience.com/49600-money-marriage-parenting.html#" rel="nofollow">parents</a> strive to meet common recommendations for good parenting behavior, from eating meals with their kids to setting rules about television time to encouraging extracurricular activities, researchers found. In fact, newly released U.S. Census Bureau statistics reveal that only small variations in parenting depend on family structure, according to the study.</p>
<p>Much more important is whether a family lives in poverty, said Sandra Hofferth, a professor of family science at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.</p>
<p>"The major issues were that some families are really resource-poor," Hofferth told Live Science. "The resources led to bigger differences in parenting than family structure." [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/17894-10-scientific-parenting-tips.html">10 Scientific Tips for Raising Happy Kids</a>]</p>
<h1>Good parenting practices</h1>
<p>Hofferth was not involved in the collection of the original census data, which was <a href="http://www.census.gov/library/publications/2014/demo/p70-139.html">released in a report on Dec. 9, 2014</a>. However, she released her own analysis of the numbers today (Jan. 28) in a report for the Council on Contemporary Families, a nonprofit academic organization devoted to research about American family life.</p>
<p>The census report found that 63 percent of American kids live with two married parents, while 27.5 percent live with a single parent, 5 percent with two unmarried but cohabiting parents and 4.5 percent with a nonparent guardian or guardians.</p>
<p>Family structure had only a limited effect on how parents raise their children, the researchers said. For example, 93 percent of married parents of 6- to 11-year-olds had at least one rule limiting television viewing, as did 90 percent of single parents of kids the same age. Among married parents, 54 percent read to their 3- to 5-year-olds <a href="http://www.livescience.com/49600-money-marriage-parenting.html#" rel="nofollow">daily</a>; among cohabiting parents, the rate was 50 percent.</p>
<p>In comparison, 41 percent of single parents reported <a href="http://www.livescience.com/46499-parents-read-kids-infancy.html">reading to their preschool-age child</a> every day. But a closer look at the data revealed that those single parents are no slackers, either, Hofferth said. They read to their 3- to 5-year-olds an average of six days a week, compared with an average of 6.8 days a week for married parents.</p>
<p>For family meals, the kids of single parents were actually slightly more likely to eat dinner with a parent than the kids of married parents — 35 percent versus 32 percent among 12- to 17-year-olds, according to the census data. This may be due to the fact that kids of married parents are more likely to participate in extracurricular activities, many of which interfere with the dinner hour, Hofferth said.</p>
<h1>Money and marriage</h1>
<p>Overall, the census numbers point to the idea that in the U.S., money matters more than a marriage certificate, the researchers said. For example, 42.5 percent of children in families whose incomes were at 200 percent of the poverty line or higher participated in sports, compared with only 22.5 percent of kids in families living in poverty. Kids' participation in clubs and lessons showed a similar pattern: About 35 percent of kids with family incomes at 200 percent or more of the poverty line participated, compared with about 20 percent for those living in poverty.</p>
<p>Children living in poor families were also more likely to experience disruptions in their family lives than children in families above the poverty line. About 22 percent of kids in poverty experienced a change in their family structure, compared with 17 percent of kids living at or above the poverty line.</p>
<p>"Poverty can affect families economically, socially and emotionally and can lead to family instability," the census report concluded.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.livescience.com/49600-money-marriage-parenting.html#" rel="nofollow">Income</a> does appear to influence family structure, Hofferth said. Only about 14 percent of two-parent married households are in poverty, compared with 37 percent of <a href="http://www.livescience.com/28420-cohabiting-marriage-cdc-report.html">cohabiting unmarried-parent</a> households.</p>
<p>"These families tend to be low-income, they tend to be low-education, and young," Hofferth said. Research on low-income parents has found that they tend to <a href="http://www.livescience.com/27988-marriage-delay-middle-class.html">seek economic stability before committing to marriage</a>, a challenge now that there are few job opportunities for workers with only a high school diploma.</p>
<p><em>Follow Stephanie Pappas on </em><em><a href="https://twitter.com/sipappas">Twitter</a> </em><em>and </em><a href="https://plus.google.com/101831066787121148004/posts"><em>Google+</em></a><em>. Follow us </em><em><a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience">@livescience</a>, </em><em><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience">Facebook</a>, &amp; </em><a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts"><em>Google+</em></a><em>. Original article on <a href="http://www.livescience.com/49600-money-marriage-parenting.html">Live Science</a>.</em></p>
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<p><em><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Copyright 2015&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</span></em></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/too-many-parents-make-these-mistakes-with-their-money-2015-1" >Too Many Parents Make These Mistakes With Their Money</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/having-money-is-more-important-than-having-married-parents-2015-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/great-horned-owl-swimming-in-lake-2014-12Great Horned Owl Filmed Swimming In Lakehttp://www.businessinsider.com/great-horned-owl-swimming-in-lake-2014-12
Fri, 12 Dec 2014 16:16:00 -0500Laura Geggel
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/548b5054eab8eae57727d6fc-1200-800/screen%20shot%202014-12-12%20at%201.28.23%20pm.png" border="0" alt="great horned owl"></p><p>A great horned owl went for an unexpected swim in Lake Michigan this week, after two peregrine falcons forced it into the water, according to Chicago birders who saw the territorial skirmish firsthand.</p>
<p>Steve Spitzer, a birder and photographer who&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/9540-owls-wise-life-cities.html">lives near Chicago</a>, filmed the owl's athletic water strokes shortly after the bird entered the lake, he told Chicago station&nbsp;<a href="http://wgntv.com/2014/12/02/watch-this-owl-swim-in-lake-michigan-after-being-attacked-by-falcons/">WGN-TV</a>.</p>
<p>Owls are known for their&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/33438-owl-landing-super-slow-motion-strange-snapshots.html">nearly silent flight</a>, but it's not unheard of to see one go for a dip, said Julia Ponder, the executive director of The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/30021-daring-duos-unlikely-animal-friends.html">Daring Duos: Unlikely Animal Friends</a>]</p>
<p>For an owl, "if you go after something in the water, and you accidentally get too wet, then sometimes it's easier to swim to shore than it is to fly with wet feathers," Ponder told Live Science.</p>
<p>Birds are known to use their&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/13883-owl-flight-wing-shape-birds.html">feathery wings</a>&nbsp;as paddles, but it's more common to see an eagle than an owl swimming in a river or lake. "They are often in areas near water," Ponder said. "You have to have those skills."</p>
<p>But swimming is thought to help great horned owls grab midnight snacks. The owls are known to prey on water birds that roost on the open water at night. "Swimming to shore is a natural and necessary follow-up activity when an owl finds itself having splashed down in the middle of a body of water going after prey," said Marc Devokaitis, a spokesperson at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/548b52aeeab8ea9f0127d6fc/owl.gif" border="0" alt="owl swimming"></p>
<p>Once an owl swims to shore, it will typically fluff out its feathers to dry.</p>
<p>"They'll shake it off," Ponder said. "They'll preen a bit. They'll rouse. They'll go up into a tree and let their feathers dry."</p>
<p>The incident that sparked the Chicago owl's aqueous escape is also common, Ponder said.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/24126-raptor-migration-hawk-hill.html">Peregrine falcons</a>&nbsp;often prevent other top predators from trespassing into their territory. The clash was likely a way for the peregrine falcons to indicate that "this is my space, and you need to move on," Ponder said.</p>
<p>The onlookers called a bird rescue team, but the owl flew away before the team arrived, WGN reported.</p>
<p>Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/laurageggel">@LauraGeggel</a>. Follow Live Science&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience">@livescience</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience">Facebook</a>&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts">Google+</a>. Original article on&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/49033-swimming-great-horned-owl.html">Live Science</a>.</p>
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<p>Copyright 2014&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a>, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/UvrAGHGJIpE"></iframe></p><p><strong>CHECK OUT:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whistle-fitbit-fitness-for-dogs-2014-12" >I Used A Fitness Tracker For Dogs And Boy Am I Lazy — Compared To A Rottweiler </a></strong></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/great-horned-owl-swimming-in-lake-2014-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/another-reason-coffee-is-good-for-you-2014-10Scientists Have Found Yet Another Reason Coffee Is Good For Youhttp://www.businessinsider.com/another-reason-coffee-is-good-for-you-2014-10
Fri, 10 Oct 2014 17:22:00 -0400Laura Geggel
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5345be1b6bb3f78c191488b9-1000-667/coffee drinking woman.jpg" border="0" alt="Coffee drinking woman"></p><p></p>
<p>Drinking decaffeinated coffee is just as helpful as drinking regular coffee is for maintaining a healthy liver, a new study finds.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether they drank decaf or regular, people in the study who drank large quantities of coffee on a daily basis had lower levels of abnormal liver enzymes, the researchers found. This suggests that a <a href="http://www.livescience.com/14715-coffee-mystery-compound-protects-alzheimers.html">chemical in coffee</a> other than caffeine may help the liver, the researchers said.</p>
<p>Other studies have found that <a href="http://www.livescience.com/8335-coffee-mysterious-benefits-mount.html">drinking coffee</a> is associated with lower risks of developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cirrhosis and liver cancer. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/2536-10-coffee.html">10 Things You Need to Know About Coffee</a>]</p>
<p>"Prior research found that drinking coffee may have a possible protective effect on the liver," lead researcher Dr. Qian Xiao, of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, said <a href="http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=146094&amp;CultureCode=en">in a statement</a>. "However, the evidence is not clear if that benefit may extend to decaffeinated coffee."</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/543839a8eab8eac56559960b-400-400/l-10-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Blue Bottle Coffee">To answer the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/32853-is-decaf-coffee-really-decaffeinated-.html">decaf question</a>, Xiao and his colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the health of people living in the United States. In this survey, participants are not only interviewed, they also undergo physical examinations including blood tests.</p>
<p>The researchers looked at about 27,800 people age 20 or older who reported how much <a href="http://www.livescience.com/2536-10-coffee.html">coffee</a> they had consumed over the past 24 hours. The team also looked at their blood samples for several markers of liver health, including alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma-glutamyl transaminase (GGT). Elevated levels of liver enzymes may be a sign of liver damage or inflammation.</p>
<p>The results showed that people who said they drank three or more cups of coffee a day had lower levels of all four of these enzymes, compared with people who did not drink any coffee. Surprisingly, it didn't matter whether a person drank regular or decaf coffee: the effect on liver enzyme levels was almost identical.</p>
<p>"Our findings link total and decaffeinated coffee intake to lower liver enzyme levels," Xiao said. Further studies are needed to identify what component of coffee is responsible for this effect, he said.</p>
<p>The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hep.27367/abstract">Hepatology.</a></p>
<p><em>Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter </em><em><a href="http://www.twitter.com/laurageggel">@LauraGeggel</a> </em><em>and </em><a href="https://plus.google.com/+LauraGeggel/posts"><em>Google+</em></a><em>. Follow Live Science </em><a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience"><em>@livescience</em></a><em>, </em><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/livescience"><em>Facebook</em></a><em> &amp; </em><a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts"><em>Google+</em></a><em>. Original article on <a href="http://www.livescience.com/48228-coffee-good-for-liver.html">Live Science</a>.</em></p>
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<p>Copyright 2014 <a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a>, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/intercept-pharmaceuticals-shares-explode-2014-8" >Biotech Stock Surges 45% After Good News On Liver Disease Treatment</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/13-scientific-reasons-to-drink-coffee-2013-11" >13 Scientific Reasons To Drink Coffee</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/another-reason-coffee-is-good-for-you-2014-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/why-some-people-think-astrology-is-a-science-2014-7Why Some People Think Astrology Is A Science http://www.businessinsider.com/why-some-people-think-astrology-is-a-science-2014-7
Tue, 01 Jul 2014 22:17:01 -0400Nick Allum
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5240bf8becad040f3b8b4573-1200-943/762px-zodiac_woodcut.jpg" border="0" alt="zodiac signs astrology" /></p><p>Most people reading this article will have also read their horoscope at least once. Even though scientific studies have never found evidence for the claims astrologers make, some people still think astrology is scientific. We are now beginning to understand why, and people's personalities might have something to do with it.</p>
<p>Astrology columns are widespread and have been around for a surprisingly long time. One of the earliest recorded columnists was 17th century astrologer William Lilly, who was reputed to have <a href="http://archive.museumoflondon.org.uk/Londons-Burning/objects/record.htm?type=object&amp;id=501732">predicted the Great Fire of London</a>, albeit 14 years too early.</p>
<p>The idea behind astrology is that stars and planets have some influence on human affairs and terrestrial events. And horoscopes are an astrologer's foretelling of a person's life based on the relative positions of stars and planets.</p>
<p>These forecasts are regularly read around the world. According to the <a href="http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/Publications/Reports/Public-engagement/WTX058859.htm">Wellcome Trust Monitor Survey</a>, 21% of adults in Britain read their horoscopes "often" or "fairly often."</p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/53b30f7b6bb3f72f33603d6c-800-253/9c3zjxb7-1404220739-1.jpg" border="0" alt="9c3zjxb7 1404220739" />Undoubtedly many people read their horoscopes just for entertainment value, or as a topic for conversation. But some people attach scientific credence to astrological predictions and regard astrology as a valid way of understanding human behaviour. A <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Astrology-Superstition-H-J-Eysenck/dp/0851172148">surprisingly</a> large <a href="http://muller.lbl.gov/papers/Astrology-Carlson.pdf">quantity</a> of <a href="http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/Correl01.htm">scientific research</a> has been carried out to evaluate the claims of astrology over the past 40 years. There is no evidence to support such claims.</p>
<p>It should then be a cause for concern if citizens make important life decisions based on entirely unreliable astrological predictions. For instance, people may decide for or against a potential marriage partner based on astrological sign. This happens <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news-interviews/Astrologers-decoding-fate-of-controversial-celebs/articleshow/28342083.cms">quite often</a> in India. Some may make <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1221957.stm">rash financial decisions</a> based on predicted good fortune.</p>
<p>Reassuringly, it turns out that the number of people in Britain who think that horoscopes are scientific is small. From the Wellcome Trust Monitor survey, we know that less than 10% think horoscopes are "very" or "quite" scientific. And a <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_224_report_en.pdf">similar proportion</a> thinks the same across the European Union as a whole.</p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/53b310096bb3f72833603d70-847-305/screen%20shot%202014-07-01%20at%203.45.36%20pm.png" border="0" alt="astrology" />However, if we ask people whether they think astrology is scientific, we see a different picture. In a <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_224_report_en.pdf">Eurobarometer survey</a> of attitudes towards science and technology, a randomly selected half of respondents were asked how scientific they thought astrology was. The other half were asked the same question about horoscopes.</p>
<p>The results shows a surprising disparity in opinion. More than 25% think that astrology is "very scientific" compared to only 7% for horoscopes.</p>
<p><img class="full" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/53b3102c69bedde21739a7d2-800-450/2bzq59kb-1404228831-1.jpg" border="0" alt="2bzq59kb 1404228831" /> In <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1860385">research</a> I carried out a few years ago, I tested the hypothesis that people get confused between astrology and astronomy, and it is this that could account for widespread apparent belief in the scientific status of astrology. Even well-respected national newspapers have been known to make <a href="https://twitter.com/gleet_tweet/status/395820711375552512/photo/1">this mistake</a>.</p>
<p>My survey also asked people how scientific they believed various activities to be. One of these was astronomy. Using a statistical technique known as regression analysis, I discovered, after adjusting for age, gender and education, that people who were particularly likely to think that astronomy was very scientific were also very likely to think the same about astrology. This points to semantic confusion about these terms among the general public.</p>
<p>In the same study, I was interested to look at other explanations for why some Europeans think astrology is scientific and others do not. The first explanation I looked at was people's level of education and their knowledge about science.</p>
<p>If one does not have an adequate understanding, it might be difficult to distinguish between science and pseudoscience. So it turns out to be. When taking a wide range of other factors into account, those who have a university degree and who score highly on a quiz tapping scientific knowledge are less likely to think that astrology is scientific.</p>
<p>In line with previous studies, women are more likely than men to think astrology is scientific, regardless of their level of education and knowledge about science. Those who believe in God or a 'spirit of some kind' are also more likely to find astrology a scientifically credible activity.</p>
<h2>Take things as they are</h2>
<p>The most interesting result, however, is based on an idea proposed more than 50 years ago by the German sociologist Theodore Adorno. In 1952, Adorno carried out a <a href="http://www.telospress.com/adorno-on-astrology/">study</a> of a Los Angeles Times astrology column. He is witheringly critical of astrology, dubbing it, with the rest of occultism, a "metaphysic of dunces", <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BG-BAgAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PP1#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false">suggesting</a> "a climate of semi-erudition is the fertile breeding ground for astrology."</p>
<p>What is particularly interesting, though, is the connection drawn between astrology with authoritarianism, fascism and modern capitalism (remember that this was in the aftermath of WWII and the Holocaust). For Adorno, astrology emphasised conformity and deference to higher authority of some kind. As some researchers <a href="http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/42/4/325.abstract">put it</a>: "Take things as they are, since you are fated for them anyway." In short, <a href="http://www.denisdutton.com/adorno_review.htm">Adorno believed</a> that "astrological ideology" resembles "the mentality of the authoritarian personality."</p>
<p>People high on authoritarianism tend to have blind allegiance to conventional beliefs about right and wrong and have high respect for acknowledged authorities. They are also those who are more favourable towards punishing those who do not subscribe to conventional thinking and aggressive towards those who think differently.</p>
<p>If this hypothesis is correct, then we should see that people who value conformity and obedience will be more likely to give credence to the claims of astrology. In the Eurobarometer survey, there was (by chance) a question that asked people how important they thought "obedience" was as a value that children should learn.</p>
<p>I used this question as a rough and ready indicator of whether a survey respondent was more or less authoritarian in their outlook. And, again, I used regression analysis to see if there was a link between people's answers to this question and what they thought about astrology. In line with Adorno's prediction made in 1953, people who attach high importance to obedience as a value (more authoritarian) are indeed more likely to think that astrology is scientific. This is true regardless of people's age, education, science knowledge, gender and political and religious orientations.</p>
<p>So, on one hand, it seems that horoscopes and astrological predictions are, for most people, just a bit of harmless entertainment. On the other, the tendency to be credulous towards astrology is at least partially explained by what people know about science &ndash; but also what kind of personality traits they have. And these factors might prove useful in understanding beliefs about a whole range of pseudoscientific fields.</p>
<p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/28642/count.gif" border="0" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p>
<p><em>Nick Allum does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.</em></p>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="http://theconversation.com/some-people-think-astrology-is-a-science-heres-why-28642">original article</a>.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/guinea-ebola-outbreak-is-worst-ever-2014-7" >Death Toll Rises In 'Totally Out Of Control' Ebola Outbreak</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-some-people-think-astrology-is-a-science-2014-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/effects-from-solar-flare-on-earth-2014-6Effects From Intense Solar Flare Could Hit Earth On Friday The 13thhttp://www.businessinsider.com/effects-from-solar-flare-on-earth-2014-6
Thu, 12 Jun 2014 16:03:00 -0400Kelly Dickerson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/50d230c06bb3f7973700001d-1200-1200/boy10hr.jpeg" border="0" alt="Solar flare" /></p><p>The sun has unleashed three powerful solar flares over the past two days, and the effects of these eruptions could hit Earth this Friday the 13th &mdash; but don't worry, space weather reports show there's no cause for alarm.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.space.com/26206-sun-erupts-3rd-huge-solar-flare.html" data-ls-seen="1">three solar bursts were all X-class flares</a>&mdash; the most intense type of solar flare that is 10,000 times as powerful as normal background flares from the sun. The most recent flare was an X1.0 that peaked at 5:06 a.m. EDT (0906 GMT) yesterday (June 11). Two other solar bursts &mdash; one X2.2 flare (twice as powerful as yesterday&rsquo;s) and an X1.5 flare (1.5 times as powerful as yesterday&rsquo;s) &amp;mdash occurred Tuesday. All three solar tempests erupted from the left side of the sun, NASA officials said in a statement.</p>
<p>Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation that are unleashed from the sun and speed out into space. They can sometimes produce waves of plasma and charged particles, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). When aimed directly at Earth, CMEs can trigger geomagnetic storms and knock out communications and power grids on Earth. So far, scientists have not observed a CME associated with this morning's flare, but yesterday's flares produced a CME that could hit Earth on Friday &mdash; Friday the 13th.</p>
<p>The fallout from the first two flares is expected to deal Earth a glancing blow, according to <a href="http://spaceweather.com/" data-ls-seen="1">Spaceweather.com</a>, but the CME could still create polar geomagnetic storms. Geomagnetic storms occur when solar particles interact with Earth's magnetic field.</p>
<p>A particularly powerful storm can create geomagnetic currents that interrupt power grids and throw off magnetic compasses, scientists have said. The storms can also produce auroras, the beautiful displays known as <a href="http://www.livescience.com/32664-what-causes-the-aurora.html" data-ls-seen="1">the Northern Lights</a>. A powerful storm can supercharge auroras outside their normal latitude ranges, with some spectacular displays visible as far south as Texas.</p>
<p>Tuesday's <a href="http://www.livescience.com/33680-astronomers-classify-solar-flares.html" data-ls-seen="1">solar flares</a> caused a radio blackout that blocked all high-frequency radio communication on the sunlit side of Earth for about an hour, according to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), which is based in Boulder, Colorado. Yesterday's solar flare produced the same effect.</p>
<p>If the geomagnetic storm forecasted for Friday hits, it will likely only produce a G1 storm, the least intense type. Therefore, it's unlikely that communication instruments will be disrupted, and space weather experts are not forecasting any unusual aurora displays, SWPC officials said.</p>
<p>As the sun rotates, it could shoot off additional flares that could end up pointing more directly at Earth, according to Spaceweather.com.</p>
<p>Strong flares and CMEs can also be hazardous to astronauts aboard the International Space Station and disrupt satellites in orbit around the planet.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-footage-of-sun-flare-2014-4#ixzz34SIs3uK0" >NASA Just Released Surreal Footage Of A Solar Flare On The Sun </a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/effects-from-solar-flare-on-earth-2014-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/polar-bears-survive-on-heart-attack-diet-2014-5How Polar Bears Survive On Diets That Would Give A Human A Heart Attackhttp://www.businessinsider.com/polar-bears-survive-on-heart-attack-diet-2014-5
Fri, 09 May 2014 14:50:00 -0400Tanya Lewis
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/536d1b7869bedd88053e69be-575-382/polar-bear-migration.jpg" border="0" alt="polar bear migration" /></p><p>If humans ate the same fatty foods as polar bears, they would have heart attacks. But a new study reveals how these magnificent Arctic beasts survive on such a specialized diet.</p>
<p>It turns out the beasts have evolved genes that allow them to survive on a diet of mostly seals and the blubber those animals contain, not to mention their sky-high cholesterol levels, without developing <a href="http://www.livescience.com/34733-heart-disease-high-cholesterol-heart-surgery.html">heart disease</a>.</p>
<p>The findings, detailed today (May 8) in the journal <em>Cell</em>, also showed that polar bears and brown bears diverged from each other much more recently than previously thought. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/45171-polar-bears-expedition-in-svalbard-norway.html">See Stunning Photos of a Polar Bear Expedition</a>]</p>
<p>"In this limited amount of time, polar bears became uniquely adapted to the extremities of life out on the Arctic sea ice, enabling them to inhabit some of the world's harshest climates and most inhospitable conditions," study leader Rasmus Nielsen, a theoretical evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement.</p>
<p>In their study, Nielsen and his colleagues sequenced the complete genomes of 79 polar bears from Greenland and 10 brown bears from around the world. The researchers discovered that <a href="http://www.livescience.com/19785-ancient-polar-bears.html">polar bears and brown bears branched off</a> from a common ancestor sometime in the last 500,000 years, compared with previous data that suggested the two species diverged up to 5 million years ago.</p>
<p>Since splitting off from brown bears, polar bears have evolved quickly through mutations in genes that play roles in heart function and the metabolism of fatty acids, the study found. These same genes have been linked to human heart disease</p>
<p>The dramatic genetic changes in response to a fatty diet have not been reported before, suggesting that scientists should look beyond standard model organisms in studying the genetic causes of human heart disease, the researchers said.</p>
<p><em>Original article on <a href="http://www.livescience.com/45449-how-polar-bears-survive-on-fatty-diet.html">Live Science</a>.</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/polar-bears-survive-on-heart-attack-diet-2014-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-scrap-of-papyrus-claiming-jesus-had-a-wife-seems-to-be-authentic-2014-4The Scrap Of Papyrus Claiming Jesus Had A Wife Seems To Be Authentichttp://www.businessinsider.com/the-scrap-of-papyrus-claiming-jesus-had-a-wife-seems-to-be-authentic-2014-4
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 14:50:00 -0400Marc Lallanilla
<p><img class="full" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/534d7c296bb3f72e656bbaaa-800-/papyrus-jesus-wife.jpg" border="0" alt="papyrus jesus wife.JPG" width="800" /></p><p></p>
<p>A small scrap of brown papyrus paper, about the size of a business card, has ignited a red-hot argument that spans all of Christendom.</p>
<p>The papyrus document, known as the "Gospel of Jesus' Wife," was unveiled in 2012 and instantly set off a debate over its authenticity. Perhaps its most controversial elements are lines that suggest <a href="http://www.livescience.com/23284-jesus-wife-gospel-suggests.html">Jesus had a wife</a>.</p>
<p>But a recent announcement from the Harvard Divinity School that the document is probably genuine has rekindled the disagreement over its provenance and meaning. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/19520-alleged-christian-relics-jesus.html">Religious Mysteries: 8 Alleged Relics of Jesus</a>]</p>
<p>In one segment of the papyrus's text, the words "Jesus said to them, 'My wife...'" appear in a crude, hand-lettered <a href="http://www.livescience.com/34229-what-does-the-gospel-of-jesus-s-wife-say.html">Coptic script</a>. (Coptic is an ancient language used by Christians living in Egypt.)</p>
<p>In another segment, the words "she will be able to be my disciple" have led some to argue that Jesus was promoting a woman to hold a position in the early Christian church &mdash; a controversial position then as now.</p>
<p>The existence of the papyrus document was first announced in 2012 by Karen L. King, a historian of early Christianity and a professor of divinity at Harvard Divinity School. King first examined the privately owned fragment in 2011, and has since been studying it with a group of biblical scholars.</p>
<h2>But is it real?</h2>
<p>Since its discovery, the document has been <a href="http://www.livescience.com/34256-gospel-jesus-wife-fake-forgery.html">dismissed as a forgery</a> by some historians. "It is very probable that it's a fake," Christian Askeland, a Coptic scholar based in Germany, said in a widely disseminated YouTube video.</p>
<p>First, the writing is sloppy, according to Askeland. Compared with authentic Coptic papyri, in which letters are written with varying thickness and subtle curves and details, the letters in the Gospel of Jesus' Wife are formed by rigid, straight strokes of equal thickness.</p>
<p>Some experts have also noted that the scribe does not seem to have used either of the writing instruments common to the time period: a stylus (Roman metal pen) or a calamus (Egyptian reed pen). Additionally, the textual content raises questions, because even though much of the manuscript's text is cut off, its meaning is "too easy" to decipher, Askeland said.</p>
<h2>No evidence of fraud</h2>
<p>Further <a href="http://www.livescience.com/24139-gospel-of-jesus-wife-faces-authenticity-tests.html">testing of the papyrus, the ink, the handwriting and the grammar</a>, however, all point to the document's authenticity, according to a recent statement from the Harvard Divinity School.</p>
<p>A technique called micro-Raman spectroscopy, which measures the scattering of light from a sample, revealed that the carbon in the ink matched samples of other papyrus documents that date from the first to eighth centuries A.D.</p>
<p>"The main thing was to see, did somebody doctor this up?" Timothy M. Swager, a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/science/scrap-of-papyrus-referring-to-jesus-wife-is-likely-to-be-ancient-scientists-say.html?hp">The New York Times</a>. "And there is absolutely no evidence for that. It would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible."</p>
<p>Swager used infrared spectroscopy, which analyzes the low-frequency light from an object, to see if the ink showed any inconsistencies or variations that would suggest it was a recent forgery. None were found.</p>
<h2>A "Monty Python" sketch?</h2>
<p>Not all skeptics, however, are dissuaded by these recent findings. Leo Depuydt, a professor of Egyptology at Brown University, said in a statement in the Harvard Theological Review that the fragment is so obviously fake that it "seems ripe for a 'Monty Python' sketch."</p>
<p>The papyrus also contains "gross grammatical errors," Depuydt said, adding that "an undergraduate student with one semester of Coptic can make a reed pen and start drawing lines."</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the document has renewed questions about the role of women and married men in the church &mdash; in both ancient and modern times.</p>
<p>"This gospel fragment provides a reason to reconsider what we thought we knew by asking what the role claims of Jesus' marital status played historically in early Christian controversies over marriage, celibacy and family," King said in a statement.</p>
<p>Original article on <a href="http://www.livescience.com/44748-gospel-of-jesus-wife-authentic.html">Live Science</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.livescience.com/40534-biblical-theories-conjectures-and-heresies.html">9 Biblical Theories, Conjectures and Other Heresies</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.livescience.com/20987-jesus-birthplace-church-nativity.html">In Photos: The Birthplace of Jesus</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.livescience.com/40046-holy-land-archaeological-finds.html">The Holy Land: 7 Amazing Archaeological Finds</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Copyright 2014 <a href="http://www.livescience.com/">LiveScience</a>, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</p><p><strong>Follow us on Facebook:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsiderScience" >Business Insider Science</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-scrap-of-papyrus-claiming-jesus-had-a-wife-seems-to-be-authentic-2014-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/10-body-parts-you-may-not-have-known-about-2014-410 Body Parts You May Not Have Known Abouthttp://www.businessinsider.com/10-body-parts-you-may-not-have-known-about-2014-4
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 18:10:00 -0400Bahar Gholipour
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5342c0f26bb3f7aa33013fa2-901-675/man-blue-eye-2.png" border="0" alt="Man Blue Eye" /></p><p>The human body is full of mysteries.</p>
<p>Although our organs and systems have long been the subject of analysis and even dissection by eager researchers &mdash; some of whom went as far as stealing corpses to advance our knowledge of exactly what is in the body &mdash; there are still parts that seem to reside in uncharted territory.</p>
<p>Some of our body parts are vital, but others are seemingly or truly useless.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Still others lie somewhere in between, or just don't get that much attention.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Here's a look at 10 parts of your body you may not have considered lately.&nbsp;</span></p>
<h3><strong>Something in the knee</strong></h3>
<p>The human body is so sophisticated that even after centuries of dissecting humans, scientists continue to discover new parts.</p>
<p>In November, Belgian researchers described for the first time a ligament in the human knee, termed the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/40981-new-ligament-found-in-human-knee.html">anterolateral ligament</a>, or ALL. A French surgeon first postulated the existence of this ligament in 1879, but it hadn't been proved until now.</p>
<p>The discovery can shed light on some of the injuries to the knee, in which a patient's knee gives way when it is moved a certain way, the researchers said.&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Dua's layer</strong></h3>
<p>In another surprising discovery of a new body part, researchers found a previously unknown layer in the human&nbsp;<span id="itxthook0p"><span id="itxthook0w"><a href="http://www.livescience.com/44610-little-known-body-parts.html#" rel="nofollow">eye</a>.</span></span></p>
<p>This thin, tough structure, dubbed&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/37348-new-layer-discovered-in-human-eye.html">Dua's layer</a>&nbsp;after its discoverer, is just 15 microns, or one-millionth of a meter thick, and sits behind the cornea.</p>
<p>The discovery of this layer will help researchers better understand some diseases of the eye that may be caused by a tear or an injury in this layer, the researchers said.</p>
<h3><strong>Extra ribs</strong></h3>
<p>People normally have&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/22537-skeletal-system.html">12 ribs on each side</a>, but some people have an extra rib, which can cause health issues. The additional rib is called a cervical rib, and is found in 0.05 to 3 percent of people, studies have estimated. This rib grows from the base of the neck just above the collarbone, and sometime is not fully formed, instead being made of just a thin strand of tissue fibers.</p>
<p>The extra rib can cause health problems if it squashes nearby blood vessels or nerves. This results in a condition known as thoracic outlet syndrome, which is marked by pain in the shoulder or neck, loss of limb feeling and blood clots.</p>
<h3><strong>Ear-wiggling muscles</strong></h3>
<p>Cats, dogs and some lucky people are able to wiggle their ears, using a group of muscles called&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/33809-wiggle-ears.html">auriculares</a>. This group includes the auricularis anterior, which draws the ear forward; the auricularis superior, which raises it; and the auricularis posterior, which pulls it backward.</p>
<p>Although we all have these muscles, it is thought that only some 15 percent of the population is able to use them to wiggle their ears. It was likely a useful skill back in the day when earlier humans needed to turn their ears toward the direction of an alarming sound. But today, it's mostly used for fun.</p>
<h3><strong>The cuticles</strong></h3>
<p>Cuticles are the layer of&nbsp;<span id="itxthook1p"><a href="http://www.livescience.com/44610-little-known-body-parts.html#" rel="nofollow"><span id="itxthook1w">hard skin</span></a></span>&nbsp;at the bottom of the nails, where the nails and fingers meet. Underneath the cuticle, new nails are forming. Almost invisible, these little body parts prevent bacteria and dirt from entering the body.</p>
<h3><strong>The floating hyoid bone</strong></h3>
<p>Found only in humans, the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/7468-hyoid-bone-changed-history.html">hyoid bone</a>&nbsp;is the only bone in the body that is not connected to any other, and is the foundation of speech.</p>
<p>This&nbsp;horseshoe-shaped bone in the throat is situated between the chin and the thyroid cartilage. Because of its location, the bone works with the larynx (voice box) and tongue to produce the range of human vocalizations.</p>
<h3><strong>The tailbone</strong></h3>
<p><a href="http://www.livescience.com/21513-vestigial-organs.html">The tailbone, or the coccyx</a>, forms from the fusion of vertebrae, and is leftover from a tail that other mammals still have.</p>
<p>It has been suggested that the coccyx helps to anchor minor muscles and may support pelvic organs. However, there have been many medical cases where the tailbone has been surgically removed with no negative consequences.</p>
<p>Some medical cases describe babies who are born with an extended version of the tailbone. Today, the unusual tail-like extension can be taken care of surgically, but in the Dark Ages, the condition was believed to be a sign of a connection to the devil, and both&nbsp;<span id="itxthook2p"><span id="itxthook2w">mother</span>&nbsp;</span>and the child would have been executed.</p>
<h3><strong>Vanishing bones</strong></h3>
<p>The human skeletal system is full of wonders. Consider this: Adults have fewer bones than a baby. We start life with 350 bones, but because some bones fuse together during growth, we end up with only 206 as adults.</p>
<h3><strong>Regenerating stomach</strong></h3>
<p>It can get a bit philosophical, but one could argue that we get a new stomach every three to four days. That's because the lining of our stomach is continually replaced by new cells. In fact, the stomach constantly builds new layers so that the organ doesn't get digested by its own acid.</p>
<h3><strong>The philtrum</strong></h3>
<p>The philtrum, also called medial&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/40694-junk-dna-shapes-faces.html">cleft</a>, is the vertical groove in the middle area of the upper lip. In some animals, it may have improved the sense of smell by keeping the area around the nose wet, but in humans, the philtrum has no apparent function.</p>
<p>It is possible that because humans rely on&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/44610-little-known-body-parts.html#" rel="nofollow"><span id="itxthook3p"><span id="itxthook3w">vision</span></span></a>&nbsp;more than any other sense, the philtrum has lost is functionality, and is there only as an evolutionary leftover.</p>
<p>However, scientists are still interested in this little body part because it is formed during specific embryonic ages, and an unusual form of the upper lip area is a clue to disruptions during the development of the fetus. Variations in the philtrum have been studied in certain diseases and is even linked to autism spectrum disorders.</p>
<p><em>Email&nbsp;</em><em><a href="mailto:bgholipour@techmedianetwork.com">Bahar Gholipour</a>&nbsp;</em><em>or follow her&nbsp;</em><a href="https://twitter.com/alterwired"><em>@alterwired</em></a><em>. Follow&nbsp;us&nbsp;</em><a href="https://twitter.com/LiveScience"><em>@LiveScience</em></a><em>,&nbsp;</em><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience" target="_blank" title="http://www.facebook.com/#!/livescience"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;</em><a href="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts" target="_blank" title="https://plus.google.com/101164570444913213957/posts"><em>Google+</em></a><em>. Original article on&nbsp;</em><a href="http://livescience.com/44610-little-known-body-parts.html" target="_blank" title="http://LiveScience.com"><em>Live Science</em></a><em>.</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/10-body-parts-you-may-not-have-known-about-2014-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/us-methane-pollution-2014-3Methane Pollution Coming From The US Is Far Worse Than Anyone Has Realizedhttp://www.businessinsider.com/us-methane-pollution-2014-3
Sat, 15 Mar 2014 16:24:00 -0400Chris Busch
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/532477cbecad046f1b314c89-800-/397953main_surfacemethane_full.jpg" border="0" alt="methane pollution" width="800" /></p><p>A new&nbsp;<a href="http://www.novim.org/images/pdf/ScienceMethane.02.14.14.pdf">landmark study</a>&nbsp;in the journal Science found that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) inventory of greenhouse gases is under counting total U.S. methane emissions by roughly 50 percent. Based on atmospheric sampling, the study estimates that this missing methane amounts to 14 terra grams (Tg) of methane; that's equal to 6.4 billion pounds, or as much as the weight of 1.4 million new Ford F150 pickup trucks.</p>
<p>In the years immediately after it's released,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/41476-more-arctic-seafloor-methane-found.html">methane</a>&nbsp;is a potent greenhouse gas. It causes 86 times as much global warming over a 20-year period as carbon dioxide, the single largest contributor to climate change. According to our&nbsp;<a href="http://energyinnovation.org/?p=3664">analysis</a>&nbsp;at Energy Innovation, the methane missing from the EPA's inventory &mdash; in terms of the contribution to global warming over a 20-year time period &mdash; would be equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of 252 coal power plants.</p>
<p>At the same time that the scientific community is finding evidence that methane is being under counted, the newly released draft version of the U.S. EPA's national greenhouse-gas emission inventory presents data showing that methane emissions from natural gas are falling. The new draft inventory releases 2012 data for the first time, and claims that emissions from methane fell by roughly 2 percent compared to 2011. The new draft inventory also revised downward estimates for past years because of new information about reduced emission well completions (the process that gets natural gas to start flowing) and other voluntary mitigation steps received from companies.</p>
<p>This treatment of methane emissions from natural gas is difficult to reconcile with the new&nbsp;<em>Science</em>&nbsp;study by Adam Brandt of Stanford University and his colleagues, the most comprehensive analysis of both "top-down" and "bottom-up" methane-emission studies ever.</p>
<p>Top down studies take air samples from aircraft or towers. These types of studies offer an accurate measurement of overall&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/41396-urbanization-can-reduce-carbon-emissions.html">methane emissions,</a>&nbsp;but they are not as well suited to attributing emissions to particular sources compared to bottom-up methods, which measure emissions directly at the source. The estimates of missing methane are based on direct sampling of the atmosphere, whereas the EPA inventory involves many assumptions and depends upon accurate self-reporting of voluntary emission reduction efforts by the extraction companies.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/53247829ecad046b1f314c88-575-344/missing-methane.jpg" border="0" alt="missing methane graph" width="800" /></p>
<p>GRAPH:&nbsp;<span>The bar on the left shows the total methane emissions, including three largest sources, for the year 2012 in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Inventory (draft version released February 2014). The next bar shows the most likely estimate of missing methane (50 percent under counting) on top of the emissions in the EPA inventory. The two bars to the right represent the lower and upper ends of the possible ranges for missing methane, 25 percent and 75 percent as large as the EPA inventory total.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>The EPA greenhouse gas inventory uses data from "bottom up" studies to develop emission factors for different components of the entire natural gas system from production (extraction from the ground), to processing, transmission and distribution. These emission factors are part of an attempt to calculate representative quantities of pollution released with each of the activities that make up the natural gas system. Roughly speaking, there is an emission factor for conventional-well completions and a lower one for reduced-emission-well completions that use pollution controls. The emission factor is multiplied by the number of well completions of each type to estimate their contribution to total emissions from the natural gas system.</p>
<p>A limitation of the bottom-up studies upon which the EPA inventory relies is a requirement that researchers obtain access to natural-gas operations. It has been challenging for researchers to secure permission to do that type of work. As a result, bottom up studies struggle to attain large sample sizes that would give confidence that they are broadly representative of the whole industry. There is also a concern that the companies that volunteer to be measured are likely to be the most responsible operators, i.e. lower emitting. Evidence is accumulating that a small number of leaks are responsible for a large fraction of methane emissions, and these outlier emissions are most likely emanating from the less-responsible producers.</p>
<p>The EPA should take a more active role in generating the comprehensive data needed to improve the inventory's estimate of methane emissions. The draft inventory states that, "the EPA will continue to refine the emission estimates to reflect the most robust information available." This is too passive an approach.</p>
<p>Emerging detection and measurement technologies offer hope for greater accuracy in measuring and understanding methane leakage. Infrared cameras that can locate leaks are required under a recently approved&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/42045-states-lead-in-fracking-oversight.html">Colorado regulation</a>. Car-mounted devices sample the air and can locate leaks and estimate their magnitude from a distance, which avoids the challenge of acquiring property owner permission that bedevils direct on-site measurement. Engineers are also developing low-cost stationary&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/33788-smoke-detectors-work-llmmp.html">detectors</a>.</p>
<p>The current oil and gas boom has been unleashed by a wave of technological innovation allowing for cost-effective directional drilling, hydraulic fracturing and other emerging techniques, like "<a href="http://www.thenextgeneration.org/blog/post/monterey-shale-series-distracted-by-fracking">acidizing</a>." Governments need to keep pace with faster innovation on the regulatory side. The EPA should quickly embrace new monitoring technologies to improve the accuracy of government emissions monitoring, which will both aid in the enforcement of clean air rules and limit methane's contribution to climate change.</p>
<p><em>The authors' most recent Op-Ed was "</em><a href="http://www.livescience.com/42045-states-lead-in-fracking-oversight.html"><em>States Take National Lead in Regulating Fracking</em></a><em>." The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/44099-methane-pollution-worse-than-thought.html">Live Science</a>.</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-methane-pollution-2014-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/weather-in-2100-2014-3If You Think California's Drought Is Bad Now, Check Out The Prediction For 2100http://www.businessinsider.com/weather-in-2100-2014-3
Sat, 15 Mar 2014 14:14:00 -0400Becky Oskin
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/501c5311ecad044749000008-800-/dry-riverbed.jpg" border="0" alt="Dry riverbed" width="800" /></p><p>Global warming's crystal ball is clearing as climate models improve, and scientists now predict that some regions will see a month's less rain and snow by 2100.</p>
<p>The new rain and snow estimates indicate that subtropical spots &mdash; such as the Mediterranean, the Amazon, Central America and Indonesia &mdash; will undergo the biggest precipitation shifts in the coming decades.</p>
<p>The number of dry days in these zones will rise by as many as 30 days per year, according to the study, published today (March 13) in the journal Scientific Reports.</p>
<p>"Looking at changes in the number of dry days per year is a new way of understanding how&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/topics/climate/">climate change</a>&nbsp;will affect us that goes beyond just annual or seasonal mean precipitation changes,&nbsp;and allows us to better adapt to and mitigate the impacts of local hydrological changes," said Suraj Polade, a climate scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and lead study author.</p>
<p>The findings also suggest a rising probability of droughts and floods in the near future as annual rainfall becomes more variable, the researchers said. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/18834-weather-climate-change-quiz.html">Weather vs. Climate Change: Test Yourself</a>]</p>
<p>"Variability is going to play a big part in making things worse [as climate changes]," Polade told Live Science. "When you're increasing the variability of the climate, one year you can have a flood and the next year you can have a drought. You can also have an increase in extreme precipitation events, with a whole year's precipitation in just a few storms."</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/53248c30eab8ea8340314c8b-575-345/fig2-1.jpg" border="0" alt="weather map" width="800" /></p>
<p>South Africa, Mexico and western Australia will go without rain for 15 to 20 more days per year, and California is likely to have five to 10 more dry days per year by the end of the century, the study found.</p>
<p>Some of the subtropical missing moisture will head north: The study predicts the Arctic will have 40 more wet days a year, but the South Pole will only get 10 more wet days per year.</p>
<p><strong>Rerouting the weather</strong></p>
<p>Why the shifts? Answers vary, but previous research has pointed the finger at changing storm tracks, particularly for tropical cyclones such as hurricanes and typhoons. Climate models suggest that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/9402-polar-express-warming-shift-storm-paths-north.html">mid-latitude cyclones may shift north</a>, while those that hit near the equator will likely stay their usual course.</p>
<p>There are also poleward shifts in the vast atmospheric patterns that control where rain falls. For example, the Hadley cell, the large-scale pattern of atmospheric circulation that transports heat from the tropics to the subtropics, has&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/23724-southern-hemisphere-drought.html">marched south during recent decades</a>, moving the subtropical dry zone (a band that receives little rainfall) along with it. The northern and southern jet streams, which mark where cold and warm air meet, also seem to be creeping toward the poles. Their movement away from the equator suggests that the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/10472-deserts-grow-tropics-expand.html">Earth's tropical zones are expanding</a>, according to recent studies. The jet streams play an important role in moving moisture around the higher latitudes.</p>
<p>"We are looking at why this is happening," Polade said. "Earlier studies suggest that warmer regions will get wetter, while colder regions can get wetter or drier," he said. "The tropics are also getting wetter or drier, while the subtropics are drying."</p>
<p>The report relies on the latest global climate models (known as CMIP5), which predict future climate change under certain greenhouse-gas emissions scenarios. The study tested an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to 950 parts per million by 2100, more than twice the current level. The number means there would be 950 molecules of carbon dioxide in the air per every million air molecules.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/weather-in-2100-2014-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/two-rare-persian-leopard-cubs-born-in-russia-2013-7Two Rare Persian Leopard Cubs Were Just Born In Russiahttp://www.businessinsider.com/two-rare-persian-leopard-cubs-born-in-russia-2013-7
Mon, 22 Jul 2013 11:24:00 -0400Laura Poppick
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/51ed4b51eab8ea0c3b000007-480-/leopardiki2.jpg" border="0" alt="Persian Leopard Cub" width="480" /></p><p>Two Persian leopard cubs were born in a Russian national park last week for the first time in 50 years, according to a statement from the World Wildlife Fund. The species is endangered.</p>
<p>The&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/17309-camera-trap-images-persian-leopard.html">Persian leopard</a>&nbsp;is one of the largest leopard subspecies, and the beasts once heavily roamed southwest Russia's Caucasus Mountains and the surrounding region along the southern Caspian Sea.</p>
<p>But&nbsp;<a href="http://www.livescience.com/1463-34-remaining-rare-leopards-killed.html">heavy poaching and habitat loss</a>&nbsp;in the 20th century landed the animal on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's endangered species list, with only about 1,290 adults now believed to be alive in the wild.</p>
<p>The two newborns were bred at the Persian Leopard Breeding Rehabilitation Center in Sochi National Park, in an effort to help reintroduce the population to the wild. The cubs' parents joined the center in 2012 from Portugal's Lisbon Zoo.</p>
<p>The youngsters are about 6 inches long (15 centimeters), and probably weigh only about 1.5 pounds (700 grams), though the center staff has not yet handled the animals to avoid disturbing them, the head of the breeding center said in a statement.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.livescience.com/27403-leopards.html">Leopard cubs</a>&nbsp;typically remain in their den for about two months, feeding on partially digested meat from their mother at first, and eventually developing their own hunting skills.</p>
<p>Those involved in the rehabilitation effort hope this birth could provide a small step forward for the species.</p>
<p>"They will be released into the wild after learning surviving skills, and will start a new population of leopards in the Caucasus Mountains," Natalia Dronova, the World Wildlife Fund's Russian species coordinator, said in a statement.</p>
<p><em>Follow Laura Poppick on&nbsp;</em><a href="http://www.twitter.com/laurapoppick"><em>Twitter</em></a><em>.&nbsp;<em>Follow LiveScience on&nbsp;</em></em><a href="http://twitter.com/spacedotcom"><em>Twitter</em></a><em>,&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/spacecom"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;</em><a href="https://plus.google.com/+SPACEcom/posts"><em>Google+</em></a><em>. Original article on&nbsp;</em><em><a href="http://www.livescience.com/38311-persian-leopard-cubs.html">LiveScience</a>.</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/two-rare-persian-leopard-cubs-born-in-russia-2013-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>